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GENESIS 


A Study of The 
PLAN OF REDEMPTION 










BY | 


V 
JOSIAH BLAKE TIDWELL 


AUTHOR OF 


“THE BIBLE BOOK BY BOOK”’ 
“THE BIBLE PERIOD BY PERIOD” 
“THE GOSPELS AND THE LIFE OF CHRIST"’ 
“THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER MAGNIFIED” 


BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS 
WACO, TEXAS 





BOOKS BY DR. TIDWELL 


THE BIBLE BOOK BY BOOK 
Net $1.50 


CHE BIBLE “PERIOD BY. e BRIG 
Net $1.50 


THE GOSPELS AND THE LIFE OF CHRIST 
Net 1.50 


THE LP OUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER MAGNIFIED 
Net $1.00 


GENESIS— 
A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


Net $1.50 


GENESIS 
A Study of the Plan of Redemption 


J. B. TIDWELL. D. D. 


Copyright 1924 
By 
Baylor University Press 
Waco, Texas 


AUTHOR’S PREFACE 


OR several years the author has offered a course in 
college, covering the whole Pentateuch in which he has 


attempted a new study of this section of the Word of God 
along the lines given in these discussions. The course has 
proven one of the most popular of all those offered for Junior 
and Senior students. Frequent suggestions have been made 
by the most thoughtful members of the classes that these 
studies should be published and made available for a larger 
group of Bible students. In Bible institutes held under the 
auspices of both churches and colleges many addresses have 
been delivered on subjects involved in these discussions. 
Always the hearers of these lectures have manifested a keen 
interest in them and not infrequent requests have come for 
their publication. 

All of this has encouraged the author to hope that this 
little volume would prove helpful. The material presented 
is based on only one of the five books studied in the college 
course. But it is based upon the book about which there is 
the greatest interest in our day and it probably contains 
enough to test the value of the whole as material for the 
general public. 

An effort has been made to remove from it all of the at- 
mosphere and phrasing that belong to the classroom or the 
lecture platform and to put it in a form that will prove most 
helpful to the largest number of readers. The book is 
arranged in such chapters, and with such introductory ques- 
tions inserted, as to make it suitable for the use of classes 
either in the schools or churches. In such classes the closest 
study of the Bible would also be necessary. On the other hand 
it may be read straight through by the general reader and 
allowed to make its own impression. 

The book is sent forth in the hope that it may contribute 
something to the sum total of Biblical knowledge and with 
a prayer that it may provoke interest in Bible study and 
especially in the plan of redemption which it reveals. 

Waco, Texas. 


CONTENTS 


GHAPIE RT ELON DRODUGCGEION Gir te. coe ws lpie secant 
1. Structure of Genesis. 2. Purpose of Genesis. 3. The 
Interest in Salvation. 4. A Bible of the Cross. 5. Basis 
and Purpose of these Discussions. 6. Defense of the 
Method. 


CA Ar hdd) Lo ee OREALLON. Sd ORV thi Wane eee 
7. An Impressive Story. 8. Those Who Study the Story. 
9. All the Work of God. 10. The Six Days and the Work 
of Redemption. 11. The Term Create. 12. The Name of 
God. 13. Deity’s Approach to Man. 14. Resume. 


CHAP Ere ROLL LF Eee. V be Nae ACY VVC) iy Mal errs ee 
15. Introductory. 16. Light as a Symbol of Jesus. 17. The 
Sun as a Symbol. 18. The Moon as a Symbol. 19. Hus- 
band and Wife. 20. Adam, the Head of the Race. 21. 
Eve, Adam’s Wife. 22. Eve’s Creation, the First Shadow- 
ing of the Cross. 23. Adam and Eve of Common Task 
and Destiny. 24. The Sabbath. 25. Man’s First Home. 

GHAPTER’IVeTHE(STORY(ORS DHE RAL Lie oon 
26. The Story. 27. The Temptation and Fall. 28. The 
Effects of the Fall. 29. Man’s Utter Helplessness. 30. 
What Man Did Not Know of God. 31. What God Re- 
vealed of Himself. 32. Promise of the Redeemer. 33. 
Their Covering of Skins. 34. The Altar of Justice and 
Mercy. 35. Some Names of God. 

CHAPTER V:: THE:STORY, OF ‘GAIN AND ABEE 
36. First Sons of Adam and Eve. 37. Two Lives Con- 
trasted. 38. The Story Related to Jesus. 39. Nature and 
Environment the Same. 40. Both Were Religious. 41. 
Sacrifices Differed. 42. Cain’s Offering. 43. Abel’s Offer- 
ing. 44. Abel’s Faith Sees Jesus. 45. Offering and Offer- 
er One Before God. 46. Cain’s Anger and Rejection. 
47. Cain Persecutes Abel. 48. Cain and This Present 
World. 49. The Resurrected Life. 50. Two Types. 51 
Resume. 


19-25 


26-50 


51-69 


70-83 


CONTENTS fs 





ISR EV.) Lilt LORY COL PE Bt mLOOD ct 84-101 
52. The Two Races. 53. A Sad Mistake. 54. Jesus and 
the Jordan. 55. The World Before the Flood. 56. The 
Wood of the Ark. 57. The Pitch. 58. Entrance Into the 
Ark. 59. The Flood and the Resurrection. 60. The Flood 
as a Whole. 61. Noah and His Work. 62. Noah as a 
Man. 63. Noah as a Type. 64. Noah’s Family Saved. 
65. The Ark. 66. The Ark and Christ’s Saving Work. 
67. Safety in the Ark and in Christ. 68. Entrance Into 
the Ark and Into Christ, Voluntary. 69. God in Charge 
After We Enter Christ. 70. Safe Before Judgment Be- 
gan. 71. Saved by Faith. 72. The World Situation. 
73. Saved Worshipers and the Rainbow Covenant. 74. 
The Rainbow. 75. The Rainbow and Jesus on the 
Cross. 76. Noah After the Flood. 77. Noah’s Naked- 
ness Covered. 


Sti ha yt Lb eL Pants POR Ye CYR ABRAHAM! vee. . 102-11. 
78. Material Civilization. 79. Moral and Religious Con- 
ditions. 80. Abraham’s Call. 81. Began in Faith. 282. 
Lived by Faith. 83. His Attitude Toward God. 84. His 
Sacrifices. 85. Relation to Others. 86. His Rescue of 
Lot. 87. Redeemer and Intercessor. 88. Abraham Repre- 
sents the Father. 89. Sacrifices of Chapter Fifteen. 90. 
Ishmael and Isaac and Their Mothers. 91. The Sacrifice 
of Isaac. 92. Isaac Secures a Wife. 93. Abraham’s Sec- 
ond Marriage. 


Sra Uy Pee PH EY SLORY, OF ISAAC soe... 116-129 

94. His Birth. 95. His Sacrifice. 96. A Type of Jesus. 
97. A Type of the Believer. 98. Abraham Secures Isaac 
a Wife. 99. Rebekah’s Faith. 100. Means of Getting Her 
to Isaac’s Home. 101. Wisdom of Her Acceptance. 102. 
Her Reception by Isaac. 103. Another Thing is Import- 
tant. 104. A Blessing to Isaac. 105. All for Isaac. 106. 
In the Land of the Philistines.. 107. Abraham’s Similar 
Conduct. 108. Lessons of Value. 109. A Warning. 


8 CONTENTS 





CHARTER XS THEO SLORY ORR AC ORGS. .am 


apne 130-138 


110. His Nature and Discipline. 111. Three Divisions of 


His Life. 112. The First-born Rejected. 113. 
Because Blessed of God. 114. Illustrates Jesus 
Jews. 115. Secured His Family While Away. 
perience at Bethel. 117. Disclosure of Grace. 


Rejected 
and the 
116. Ex- 
118. He 


Plans to Meet Esau. 119. A Man Wrestles With Him. 


120. The Broken Thigh and Jacob’s Prayer. 121. 


Aiways 


a Worshiper. 122. Significance of the Change of His 


Name. 


CHAPTER X. THE STORIES ABOUT JOSEPH 


eects 139-157 


123. The Story Familiar. 124. Principal Events of His 
Life. 125. Important Elements of the Narrative. 126. 
The Story Typical. 127. The Strictly Typical Element. 
128. Hated For His Dreams. 129, Faithful in All Things. 
130. Receives His Brethren. 131. Stephen Applies the 
Story. 132. Hope For Sinners. 133. Repentance Re- 
quired. 134. Secures His Family. 135. His Family Es- 


caped His Humiliation and Shared His Glory. 


136. The 


Christian’s Comfort. 137. According to Divine Plan. 138, 


Preparation Complete Before Needed. 139. 


Prepara- 


tion Sufficient for All. 140. Men First Used All They 


Had. 141. Surrender All They Have to Joseph 


and the 


King. 142. He Wanted Them There. 143. Jesus Wants 
Us With Him. 144. Safe During the Life of Joseph and 
the Pharaohs Who Knew Him. 145. An Ambitious Youth. 
146. A Trustworthy Youth and Man. 147. Worthy Prin- 
ciples of Life. 148. How Sinners Come to Jesus and are 


Comforted and Saved. 149. Resume. 


CHAPTER XI. SEVEN PRINCIPAL MEN OF GENESIS, 158-164 


150. A Study of Sevens. 151. Other Types. 


152. The 


Seven as General Types. 153. Two Groups—Three and 
Four. 154. The Order of These Four. 155. Order in the 


Use of All Biblical Types. 


CHAPTER I 


Introduction 


1. Structure of Genesis. The form and structure of Gen- 
esis can not be separated from the atmosphere in which its nar- 
ratives are set. Looked at from one standpoint it falls into ten 
divisions, each beginning with a “generations” heading. From 
this view it is so formed as to emphasize the religious and irrelig- 
ious groups and to show the importance and connections of each. 
If it is divided into two divisions as already suggested—one, 
chapters 1-11, or the period before Abraham, the other, chapters 
12-50, or the period after Abraham—we shall find that each sec- 
tion contains five of the ten primitive “generation”? chapters. 
This may suggest that they early began the use of decimals as 
an aid to memory, the five fingers of the hand for one great 
division and the other five for the other division. 


Another view of the structure recognizes the national atmos- 
phere which each section manifests. This method emphasizes the 
so called photographic character of the book and by the use of 
three divisions shows how accurately it has caught the life and 
spirit of the ages through which it passed and how it has brought 
them forward to us. 

In the first section (chapters 1-11), the records concerning 
creation, temptation, the flood, and the confusion of tongues, are 
in considerable degree paralleled in Babylonian literature. The 
whole life of the race, especially as it is described after the de- 
luge, seems to center in Babylonia and every incident seems to 
be surrounded by a Babylonian atmosphere. The section ends 
with Abraham, the great hero of the book, coming out of Ur of 
the Chaldees. This does not mean that these stories were copied 
from Babylonian origin, for Professor Clay has proved to us that 
the Biblical story of the deluge is older than the Babylonian story. 
It does, however, show how completely Babylonian idolatry had 
gripped the whole world and how God had to call out of it one 
through whom He could preserve and propagate true religion. 


10 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


The second section (chapters 12-38), is filled with the spirit 
of the Amorite or Canaanite. Abraham has moved out of Baby- 
lonia into Palestine. He has gone into the very heart of the 
country. As we read the story we are in a different world. Every 
scene and city and all the customs described are clearly Palestinian. 
There is no mistaking the atmosphere, it is no longer Babylon- 
ian. The Palestinians, who lived in a hot climate and had no 
means of preserving the bodies of their dead, always buried them 
out of their sight on the same day of their death. Abraham 
likewise made a quick bargain with the sons of Heth for the cave 
of Machpelah “That I may put my dead out of sight.” This 
is but one of many illustrations showing the Canaanite influence 
seen in this section. 

In the third section (chapters 39-50) we are removed from 
either Babylonia or Canaan and are surrounded by an Egyptian 
atmosphere. We follow Joseph into Egypt and thereafter every- 
thing we see is Egyptian. ‘Today we know from her own rec- 
ords very much of the customs and interests of Ancient Egypt 
and every part of what we find recorded is true to those customs 
and interests. We have references to their slaves, to their ag- 
riculture, to their economic system, to their social. customs, to 
royalty, to their interest in dreams, to their priests, and many 
other things and in regard to all of these there is perfect accuracy 
in the Genesis portrayal. 

From these illustrations and suggestions we see that we have 
in Genesis an ancient history (in so far as it is history) that not 
only tells its story with perfect accuracy, but exhales and dif- 
fuses upon us the very atmosphere of all’ the civilizations and 
ages through which it has moved. It is, therefore, not just a 
record of facts, but a portrayal of life. 


2. Purpose of Genesis. ‘The book of Genesis has a sig- 
nificance and an importance all its own. Among all the books 
of the world it holds a unique place. Its very title attracts 
attention and creates interest. Its first section surveys the for- 
tune of the whole human race, but from the start puts primary 
emphasis upon one particular section of the race, the descendants 


INTRODUCTION 11 


of Seth. In the later sections the writer follows the story of one 
family, that of Abraham and his descendants, Isaac and Jacob. 
Only so much consideration is given to the other branches of the 
human race as is necessary in properly portraying the chosen fam- 
ily. Once more it is noticeable that in each section there is first 
a brief reference to the collateral branches of the race and they 
are then dismissed so that there may, thereafter, be an uninter- 
rupted flow of the story of the holy seed. In this way the mind 
of the reader is kept constantly upon the special people. Cain 
is noticed before Seth and dropped so that Seth and his descend- 
ants may be seen the more clearly. The genealogies of Japheth 
and Ham are given before that of Shem out of whom Abraham, 
in whom interest is to center, was to be born. The biographies 
of Ishmael and Esau come before those of Isaac and Jacob 
which are carried forward to the end of the book. 


The general plan seen everywhere in the book leads clearly 
to the conclusion that Genesis is an introduction to the study of 
the Kingdom of God. It was intended to show the necessity 
and nature of the new economy about to be established. It shows 
how the institutions of salvation had been made necessary 
through the fall and corruption of the race which was punished 
in the flood and seen again in the story of the tower of Babel. 
It shows how God makes in Abraham a new venture in His 
efforts at redemption, but also that he does it along the same 
lines He has pursued from the beginning. It aims to explain 
man’s lapse into sin which rendered salvation necessary and to 
portray the first movements of the divine grace which from 
that time forward has been working for man’s restoration. 


Genesis has no delusions about the reality of sin and the danger 
of the sinner. It recognizes that sin is the most important issue 
in the life of every man every day of his life. It sees in the 
question of the origin of sin a problem of universal interests and 
undertakes to answer this hardest question of philosophy and re- 
ligion. It makes it clear that evil did not begin as a mere physical 
or material thing. It was not a matter of evolution of con- 
sciousness—not just a higher and expanding degree of a lower 
and duller physical sensibility. Genesis contains no silly nonsense 


12 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


about sin as a falling upward toward God through the evolution 
of conscience. It shows how it could not have been a material 
matter, for in creation God made every physical thing “good.” 
But sin is represented truly as beginning in unbelief, in distrust- 
ing and doubting the word and goodness of God. It began in 
disobedience against the divine command. It was the assertion 
of the will of man against the will of God. It was the alienation 
of man from God by his act of self-will. By selfish unbelief sin 
had entered the heart that God had created in purity and had 
intended to live in happy fellowship with Himself. In this con- 
nection the book also shows that by loving belief in the Lord sin 
may be overcome and cast out of the heart and our redemption 
made sure. It shows how God is trying to bring about that belief. 


In pursuance of these purposes a religious interest is made to 
dominate the whole book as, indeed, it does the whole Bible. 
Even in the brief story of the creation and original state of man 
there are found all of those fundamental principles of religion and 
morality which are recognized by the universal conscience of 
mankind. It tries in it all to fix our thoughts on a glorious 
world and a living Omnipotence. Adam and Eve and their fall 
point to the fact of the fall and sin of every man and woman. 
We are shown in all of it the causes of the loss of innocence, the 
certain consequences of retribution and above all the divine 
remedy for sin. In the promise that the seed of the woman should 
crush the serpent’s head we hear the first word of prophecy 
and catch the first gleam of promised redemption and of the light 
and hope which was finally to brighten into the perfect day of 
salvation. Here are all the great elemental principles which we 
find running through the whole Bible. Here is “law and proph- 
ecy; the denunciation of sin and the promise of pardon; the 
flame which consumes and the light which comforts.” In the 
story of Cain and Abel and Seth and in the story of the flood the 
same truths are strikingly symbolized. The saving ark, the dove 
with the olive branch, the promise that God will no more smite 
with a flood every living thing, the bow in the cloud as a pledge 
of mercy and safety—all these stand over and above God’s wrath 
against corruption and sin. When Abraham is chosen, the pur- 


INTRODUCTION 13° 


pose was declared to be that he should be a blessing to all the. 
nations of the earth. 


From all of this it is clear that Genesis is not intended as a 
book of universal history. By a special revelation which partakes 
very largely of the nature of an apocalypse, God has given us in 
the early chapters some highly helpful information concerning the 
early beginning of things. In the other chapters He has given 
us the record of some of the principal men and doings of the 
time of the beginnings of His special revelations of grace. But 
it is evident that only those facts and experiences are recorded that 
are necessary to show how, after the fall, God began to make 
known to man his plan of redemption. All men and incidents 
are excluded from the narrative except those that had some 
bearing upon that subject. 


This also makes it clear that Genesis is not a book of science. 
It makes no attempt to explain the processes in nature. It does 
not furnish a basis for the study of the science of geology, 
zoology, biology, botany, astronomy, archaeology, or anthropol- 
ogy, all of which are suggested in the first two chapters. No 
amount of study of it would give us an understanding of electricity 
or steam which are inherent in the universe whose creation is 
declared. It does not answer the questions of science, but re- 
sponds to the longings of the soul. Science and Genesis and in- 
deed all the Bible have to do with the facts of two realms— 
the physical and spiritual. One deals with physical facts and the 
other with religious faith. One deals with what may be known 
by sight, the other looks to what we may learn by faith. One 
studies “the dust of the ground” out of which God created man; 
the other studies the “living soul’? which he became after God 
breathed into him the breath of life. Genesis sets down over 
all things and as an explanation of all things the simple phrase, 
“In the beginning God.” It is content to declare that God is 
the Cause and Creator of all things. Then leaving science free 
to study their nature and processes, it is constantly trying to 
show forth the plan of salvation and the method of its working. 


In these conclusions lies the starting point for any proper study 
of Genesis. We must not put our main emphasis upon the history 





14 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


and biography, nor upon the facts of science which it suggests. 
All the facts recorded must be thoroughly learned, but in the 
study of these facts we must put our emphasis upon their re- 
ligious significance. In earth and sky, in land and sea, in animal 
and man, and in all their relations with each other and with God, 
we must look for a profound religious purpose. Any proper 
study of the book will, therefore, be to learn something of 
the true religion manifested in the divine work of salvation. 
Just this will be the object. 


3. The Interest in Salvation. Salvation is a subject of 
abiding interest. Every generation gives earnest consideration 
to it. All of its great words and doctrines of hope have been 
carefully studied and ably discussed by the multitude of thought- 
ful students and writers. They have analyzed and explained all 
the direct teachings.of Jesus and of Paul and of other New 
Testament writers. They collated Old Testament promises and 
prophecies and have given exhaustive consideration to the types 
and foreshadowings of Jewish history—all of these in an attempt 
to fathom the blessed depths of mercy and the marvel of our salva- 
tion in Christ. One wonders whether the subject can be ap- 
proached from any new angle. 


Notwithstanding all this, the plan of redemption as wrought 
out by Jesus has lost none of its interest for the hearts of sinful 
men. For so long as the essential nature of human life in this 
world remains unchanged; so long as men are sinful; so long as 
they are conscious of their need of a Savior who can deliver 
them from the consequences of sin; so long as they continue to 
die; so long as they continue to yearn for light from beyond the 
grave; so long will there be the same eager interest in the great 
subject of salvation. The search for more and new light con- 
cerning our eternal hope in Christ will continue unabated, there- 
fore, until the end of time. 


Indeed, salvation always has been, is now and always will he 
the most vital and the most interesting of all the subjects of 
human thought. In fact, if one may speak of God in human 
terms, it is the matter of deepest concern to Him. He built 


INTRODUCTION 15 


the world with a redemptive purpose and the chiefest of all His 
glory will be the work He has done through Christ in saving 
fallen men. To this end He has created the world—that it might 
become a platform upon which He could act to display His grace, 
that He might show forth His glory in Christ (Eph. 2:7). His 
love could not rest without some way of expressing itself. Every- 
thing, therefore, whether in time or in eternity, tended to this 
end. 


But his love was sacrificial and propitiatory and could not ade- 
quately express itself except through sacrifice and suffering. 
The world was, therefore, built around the cross and all human 
history was made to center in Christ, whose purpose in coming 
in the flesh and whose consummate act was to die in Golgotha. 
From the beginning of time everything looked toward Calvary, 
and now that Jesus had died for the sins of men, everything 
points back to the time and place of His death. So important 
is this that every time we address a letter or fix a historical date, 
we pay tribute to Jesus by reckoning the incident before or 
after Christ. Truly the cross on which Jesus died for our sins 
is the center of God’s universe, the topmost experience of all 
human history and the consummate act of Deity in the work of 
redemption. 


But as certainly as all secular history faces toward the death 
which Jesus suffered for sinful men, so certainly does all sacred 
history, found in the Bible, center in the same glorious act. It 
shows us how all eternity is ruled by the cross. Jesus stood 
as a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. His 
death was uppermost in all the divine planning. In the far flung 
future, eternity, the redeemed will look back to His death and 
sing, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in 
his own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and 
his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever!” 
(Rev. 1:5-6). Thus the Bible makes eternity both before and 
after the time of Christ concerned especially in His cross and its 
meaning to men. 


16 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 





4. A Bible of the Cross. Its central theme is Christ cru- 
cified. This crimson thread stretches through the Old Testa- 
ment and colors all the warp and woof of the New Testament. 
The cross, the blood, the death, the propitiation, the sacrifice, the 
crucifixion upon these, the Word of God puts the tremendous 
emphasis. Every page lifts up the cross—every page is splashed 
with the blood. All of the four great facts of the gospel—the 
Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Ascension and the Interces- 
sion of Jesus, center in an uplifted cross. The Incarnation was 
to the end that He might die; the Resurrection looks back to the 
cross and could have no meaning without His death; the Ascen- 
sion casts a new glory in the crucifixion and illuminates and em- 
phasizes the cross (Heb. 10:12); the Intercession rests upon the 
Crucifixion as a basis for the plea of the Intercessor. 


The cross with a meaning and message that is as high as 
Heaven, as deep as hell and as wide as the universe is the radiant 
center of all. The Bible, therefore, which tells us of salvation is 
filled with illustrations, physical, animal and human, by which 
we are impressed with our need of redemption and of the fact 
that such redemption has been provided. There is promise and 
prophecy of a coming Redeemer. There is sacrifice and ceremony 
to remind us of the nature and efficacy of the atonement which 
He has provided. Every chapter and verse, every story, whether 
personal or national, and every teaching whether in song or pro- 
verb or prophecy, somehow points to the salvation accomplished 
in the death and resurrection of Jesus. 


5. Basis and Purpose of these Discussions. In connec- 
tion with what has been said above as to the purpose of the book 
and of any proper study of it, it scarcely needs to be said that the 
object of these studies is to find out its suggestions concerning the 
plan of redemption. Certainly it records the origin of man, the 
beginning of civilization and the entrance of sin into the world. 
Let us try to discover what message it has about salvation from 
the sin. It is a sort of introduction to the whole Bible. What 
then does it reveal as to the purpose of the whole which is to re- 
veal to us a knowledge of God’s way of salvation and of His glo- 
rious Christ. Just this is the purpose of these studies. They lay 


INTRODUCTION 17 


no claim to anything new or extraordinary, but they are written 
in the hope that they may stimulate thought and that they may be 
a comfort to some hearts. 


It should be said also that there is no claim that all the in- 
cidents used are direct types of Jesus and His work as recorded in 
the New Testament. Many of them are given to show some- 
thing of how rich the Bible is in illustrations of the great teach- 
ings concerning redemption. It is hoped that it will suggest to 
the reader how, along wih the real promises and prophecies and 
teachings, the Bible is full of stories that enforce and illustrate 
the truth it reveals. Everywhere in it there is acted as well as 
spoken parable, and the man who has learned to see these par- 
ables of life and action, has discovered a source of incalculable 
blessing and strength. The effort has also been made to restrain 
the working of imagination so that no teachings of redemption 
shall be based upon these stories, except where they have been 
incorporated into such teaching in the New Testament. All other 
stories will simply illustrate what is expressly taught elsewhere 
and will, it is hoped, prove helpful in showing us, through the 
foreshadowings of such precious truths, what a Divine unity pre- 
vails in the whole Scripture. 


6. Defense of the Method. There is no apology for using 
these stories in teaching and enforcing spiritual truth. Indeed 
it is deliberately done because the writer believes that the modern 
cry against spiritualizing the Old Testament, while accomplishing 
some good in suppressing the fancy of certain men, has also done 
much harm in the way of undermining confidence in it as a 
divine book. We have taken away from it most of its sacred 
meaning and it has become to many, nothing but an ancient his- 
tory. ‘They have, therefore, very naturally ceased to go to it 
for spiritual light and meaning. 


But we have ample ground for such use of it as is here pro- 
posed. Jesus and the early disciples set us the example. They 
frequently made use of Old Testament incidents, both personal 
and national, to enforce New Testament principles. Stephen in 
his wonderful defense made use of the whole Jewish history to 
reveal the situation of the Jews of his day. He showed how it 


18 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


was their habit always to first reject God’s message and messen- 
ger, then to endure a long period of suffering because of it, and 
finally to accept what they had at first rejected. He pointed out 
how they had first rejected Moses, then suffered forty years of 
oppression in Egypt and finally were delivered by him; how they 
refused to hear the true spies, then wandered forty years in the 
wilderness and afterward entered Canaan as they were urged to 
do then. He argued that in the same way they had rejected 
Jesus, they would now suffer the displeasure and punishment of 
God, and would finally accept and trust Him whom they had cru- 
cified. Paul used the story of Hagar and Ishmael and Sarah 
and Isaac as an allegory to illustrate the principle of law and faith 
in the plan of salvation and also to show the relation and dis- 
positions of our fleshly and spiritual natures. Peter used the 
flood in a way to make it represent judgment and the ark a 
figure of Christ. He also made the flood a figure of baptism. 
Jesus used the stories of Noah and his time to impress upon his 
hearers the need of readiness for His coming and the story of 
Jonah and the fish to illustrate His own death and burial. Other 
such examples furnish ample ground for our use of Old Testa- 
ment incidents in our teaching of truth. 


Nor can we believe as some have argued, and others implied, 
that we are only warranted in using those incidents that are used 
or referred to in the New Testament. That is to reject the rest 
as without spiritual import. But we are distinctly told that it 
was all written for our instruction. ‘The instruction, however, 
is available to us only as we see the application of it in our 
lives and spiritual relations. The proper view is that the use of 
certain things by the New Testament writers and speakers war- 
rants us in using others wherever they are applicable. And not 
to make such applications is to fail to get out of these narratives 
the profit which they are intended to bring. ‘These studies are, 
therefore, put forth boldly in the belief that God intended for us 
to make some such use of all of the Old Testament. 


CHARTER oI 


The Creation Story 


7. An Impressive Story. In all literature there is not 
found another passage quite so picturesque, so concise and 
concrete as the six brief paragraphs by which the first chap- 
ter of Genesis shows how God, acting through six successive 
periods of light and darkness, prepared the world for man’s 
residence and put him in it. In the second chapter we do 
not have another story of creation as some have thought, but 
a recurrence to the subject of man’s creation, because of its 
special interest. In it, the presence and activity of Jehovah 
are particularly emphasized. He shows how God shaped man’s 
body out of the dust of the earth and breathed into it that 
which made it become a living soul. The creation of the 
woman was supernatural as well as that of the man, and was 
for the purpose of providing for man a helpful companion 
so that his happiness and development might be complete. 
Moreover, they were created in the image of God and like 
God have intelligence and will be and were, therefore, given 
authority to rule over the earth. One cannot read this story 
without feeling that man is not only different from all other 
creatures, but far above them, and that he is the chief end 
of all creation—that all things else were created on his be- 
half. 


8. Those Who Study This Story. In the light of all this, 
it is not surprising that these two chapters have been the 
subject of most diligent study and that from every angle of 
approach. Both enemy and friend have pondered each word, 
the one to find truth and light, the other to find some fault 
that. might be exposed. The unbiased scientist also in his 
search for truth has come here for some word from that far 
distant past into which he cannot explore through “means 
of laboratory experiment and observation. He has wanted 
to see whether this story would throw any new light upon 
the great problems of the world and of man. The student of 


20 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


life and religion has come here to find, if possible, some clue 
as to what in man has ledihim to his present position and 
to see if there is given any suggestion as to his final destiny. 
It is but natural, therefore, that the student of redemption 
should also turn here for light. Precisely this is what we 
are to do in this chapter. 


9. All the Work of God. The things said about God show 
that He is “all and in all” of the story. The very first word 
tends to this feeling. “In the beginning God”. In this state- 
ment he makes God the explanation of all things. And over 
every truth discovered in nature today the reverent scientist 
joins Moses and writes as an explanation of it the word 
“God”. Then there follow eight other expressions “God 
created”, “God brooded over”, “God caused’, “God formed”, 
“God said”, occurring several times, “God blessed and said”, 
“God saw’, “God rested”. In these and their implications 
we are given a good knowledge of the work and purpose and 
providence of God. ‘They teach us that God not only created 
the world, but that He had a personal interest in all of its 
developing processes and that He controlled these processes 
and directed the outcome of it all. When we study the various 
things God said, we will come to the conclusion that man 
is of chief interest and is put over all the rest, and in fellow- 
ship with God. ‘The interest is not in earth, and seas and 
continents; not in geological or biological ages; not in cen- 
turies or cycles of development or change, but in man who 
by His grace was to come into a perfect social order and to 
dwell in fulness of fellowship with his Creator. We are 
also introduced to the omnipresence of God who could see 
all of His creation, whether movements of matter or actions 
of men. It closes with God at rest, satisfied with his world- 
making and world-developing work. It is finished in man 
whose partnership and fellowship with Himself will satisfy 
the purpose of the creating God. 


10. The Six Days and Work of Redemption. And, first of 
all, it is most interesting and instructive to observe how 


THE CREATION STORY 21 


much there is in the details of the story of creation that is 
suggestive of Christ’s work and of our relation to Him. We 
are not told of the method used in the creation of the phys- 
ical universe. All the emphasis is put upon the state or 
condition of the world when He began to prepare it for a 
home for man. It was all in chaos and darkness. It was 
altogether unfruitful and required the direct impact of the 
Spirit of God to bring it into order. 


The whole accomplishment of these six days appears to 
be a work of redemption. The Lord worked over the ma- 
terial He had already created. And this was primarily a 
work of the actual redemption of the physical universe. ‘The 
creation of the material universe was “in the beginning” 
(verse 1) and it is not possible to tell how long it was from 
that “In the beginning” to the incidents recorded in verse 2. 
Verse 2 says it “was without form and void” (or revised ver- 
sion “was waste and void”). The word translated “void” is 
again used where it is said that God “created it not a waste” 
(Isa. 45:18). This seems to teach that, in the creation of 
verse 1, it was not “without form and void” and hence that 
some time between the creation of verse 1 and the condition 
described in verse 2, material creation had undergone a fall 
that plunged it into chaos. It was a fallen or wrecked 
world and God here describes its recovery from the evil 
plight. At first all of it may have been more beautiful than 
the little spot of Eden in the renewed world, but it was then 
in ruins and the “six days” work was to restore or redeem it. 


This gives a world of meaning to the word “brooding.” It 
is an expression of motherly love and indicates the tone and 
purpose of all the story. True love is expressed in the 
mother idea. It longs to bring into being another, upon 
whom to lavish itself. It craves to have an answering love, 
that will respond to it. Impelled by this longing it expresses 
itself by bringing forth other life like unto itself. It will 
even give itself that life may come to another. And how 
beautiful to see the mother before the new life comes, mak- 
ing ready a home for it. Whether it be the mother bird 


22 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 





making ready the cosiest possible nest and then patiently 
brooding until her young come to possess it, or the human 
mother planning a place for her expected babe, it but ililus- 
trates the work of God in preparing the earth as a home for 
man, who was soon to appear as the creation of His love. 


The Bible does not call God “mother”, but it often speaks 
of Him in terms of a mother, as “brooding” here and “nurs- 
ing father” (Acts 13:18). But the word “father” usually 
includes both the father strength and the mother tenderness. 
And as father and mother He gave some of Himself by 
breathing into man His own life-breath so that he might be 
in the image of God. This is love in its finest form and doing 
its finest work. Nor can we see this and follow the story of 
His interest in man without knowing that like a mother 
would die for her offspring, He would climb Calvary and 
die for man who was made in His likeness. 


The word “brooding” (or “moved” in the old version) prob- 
ably is better rendered as “was brooding tremendously with 
love’. ‘This, in the light of a wrecked or ruined universe was 
not love merely giving life, but love giving itself to mend a 
break, to overcome a disaster; it was love in the act of re- 
demption. It was wooing back the fallen. So redeeming 
love always does—recovers the lost. It is a picture of Cal- 
vary. It reminds us of the spirit in which Jesus came to woo 
us back to God and right. He would give up His life that 
man might be saved. He gave His breath to man in creation, 
and gave His blood for man in salvation. And He gave the 
latter because He had given the former. It was redemptive 
work. 


This work of redeeming physical nature is a most sugges- 
tive illustration of the redemption of fallen men. Like the 
fallen world that lay in darkness and ruin, all men are fallen 
into moral darkness and ruin. ‘The whole process of recovery 
is alike in both. It is accomplished by the Spirit of God 
working in conjunction with His word. “The Spirit brooded 
(like a mother) upon the face of the waters and God said” 
{verse 2). The result was that light flashed forth and re- 


THE CREATION STORY 23 





vealed the darkness and ruins. This giving of light was the 
work of the first day. In like manner the whole work of six 
days and each of the acts of these days furnished a parallel 
to the work of the redemption of lost man. 


11. The Term “Create.” It is worth our while in this sec- 
tion to note that in the six days God, for the most part, is said 
to have “made” not that He “created”. The word create occurs 
only three times in chapter 1. (1) In verse 1 where it is 
said He created the material world which we have discussed. 
(2) In verse 21, where He is said to have created animal life. 
(3) In verse 27, where it claimed that He created man with 
his spiritual nature which is far above the animal or material 
existence. Physical matter, animal life and human life each 
involved an independent act of creation. This triple crea- 
tion, out of nothing of world stuff, animal life and human or 
spiritual life, helps us at exactly the place where all science 
is helpless to explain. It indicates that there can be no cross- 
ing the line between physical and animal or between animal 
and human. There was no development out of one into the 
other. Each was a separate act of creation. Here God is 
seen as the great Creator, more especially the Life-giver. 
Life is the great central truth of Genesis. It is, so to speak, 
the key-note, the thread upon which all else, such as the 
biographies, is strung. 


12. The Name of “God”. It is of interest also, to note 
that the name of God as Creator is a una-plural noun, which 
in the Hebrew means three or more. Here is the suggestion 
of the Trinty, especially emphasized when the creation of 
man was involved and He said “Let us make man, etc.” We 
know that Christ the second person of the God-head was 
the Creator of all material existence (Col. 1:16). But when 
it came to man, God the Father, God the Son and God the 
Holy Spirit, all acted in unison. Here again is a parallel. It 
required the Trinity to create man, so now it seems to take 
the Triune God to redeem him from the curse of the fall. 
God planned redemption, Christ worked it out and perfected 


24 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


the plan, and the Holy Spirit regenerates and guides and 
seals us. 


We can not fail to observe that after man comes on the 
scene, (all of 2:4-25) the Name of Deity is changed from 
God to LORD (GOD) or JEHOVAH GOD. Jehovah is the self- 
existent God who reveals Himself as Savior. It is God’s 
name in His covenant relation to man. It is suggestive of 
blood. We have just seen how the Savior, as one of the 
Trinity, participated in the creation of man, and now we see 
how in His creation the covenanting and saving God (Je- 
hovah God) is chiefly active (2:7). The fact that God in his 
saving capacity created him, suggests that even the creation 
had in it a redemptive purpose. 


13. Deity’s Approach to Man. The several steps by which 
Deity comes to man as Savior, seem to be about as follows: 
(1) Far back in eternity or before it, the eternally begotten Son 
is dwelling in the bosom of the Father. (2) The eternal pur- 
pose planned the redemption of a fallen world and the Son 
became “The Lamb slain from before the foundation of the 
world”. (3) The Son, then, in the execution of that eternal 
plan, became Creator, crowning His creation, in cooperation 
with the Trinity, with man who was to be redeemed. (4) 
With man now on the scene, Deity comes a little closer to 
him as Jehovah, who is the pre-incarnate Son of Deity in his 
saving capacity. This manifestation is particularly impressive 
when Adam and Eve had sinned and as Jehovah, or Savior 
God, He came to them in the Garden. (5) In the fulness of 
time, Jehovah became Emmanuel, or God with us. This He 
did in Jesus and in that capacity accomplished the redemp- 
tion which had been purposed in eternity. 


14. Resume. There was then, a first or primary creation, 
and afterwards a fall; there was a first heaven and earth and 
then an earth without a heaven—in darkness and buried in 
deep barren and restless waters. The work of the six days 
was a remolding of that lapsed creation. It was as we may 
call it, the new birth of the world. And how significant that 


THE CREATION STORY 25 





birth is, as a type of the redemption of man. Having fallen 
away from God, man like the material creation is in profound 
darkness and all the billows of sin have submerged that which 
was once pure and beautiful. Before Jesus enters into the 
human heart (now fallen) it is full of disorder and chaos. It 
is unfruitful in all the things that were divinely purposed. 
Nor has it in itself the power to set itself right. There are 
no laws within itself that will finally bring it out of this 
chaotic and unprofitable state. It tends to grow worse in- 
stead of better and like the fallen and chaotic earth must 
have assistance from without. There must be a new birth. 
The Spirit must brood upon the face of the waters, and God 
must call forth light. So also we must be “Born of the 
Spirit” and of “The incorruptible seed through the word 
of God” (I Peter 1:23). 


CHAPTER III 


The Seven Days’ Work 


Questions and Themes for Study. At the beginning of 
this and the following chapters there is given a list of questions for 
study. The purpose is to lead the student to become familiar with 
the contents of the Scripture narrative before asking him to consider 
the religious import of it. In each case let these topics be fully dis- 
cussed before taking up the discussions that follow. In this chapter 
learn: (1) What was the condition of the physical universe when God 
began to prepare it for man’s abode? 1:1-2. (2) How many and what 
things are said to have been done by God, such as God said, saw, etc. 
—make a list? chapters 1-2 (3) What were the successive acts of 
creation? 1:3-27. (4) What facts are given about the creation of man? 
1:26-27; 2:7. (5) What blessings and gifts are granted to man? 
1:29-30. What religious institution did God establish and symbolize? 
2:1-3. (7) What was Adam’s home and what duties and blessings 
and restrictions were given him? 2:8-17. (8) What provision was 
made for man’s fellowship and what institution was established? 2:18-24. 
(9) In what respect is man in the image of God? 1:26-27. (10) What 
is man’s position in regard to lower animals and physical nature? 
1:28-30; 2:9,15,19,-20. (11) What are some of the traditions of crea- 
tion? 


Other Things Than Man 


15. Introductory. The first work here—the work of the first 
day—was to give light upon the earth. It shined out upon a 
great disolation. God looked upon that light and saw that it was 
good, but it was all He saw that He could call good. And let 
it be remembered that the source of this light was not in the 
earth itself. It could never have originated light. It came from 
the Word of God, acting in connection with the power of the 
Holy Spirit. One is reminded of the saying of the psalmist ‘The 
entrance of Thy word giveth light.” (Psa. 1192130); 


All this is suggestive of Jesus concerning whose coming it is 
said “The people which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK of 


them which sat in the region and shadow of death light sprang 
up (Mat. 4:16). Compare also Isa. 9:2 and Luke 1:78-79, 
Paul says our “senseless heart was darkened,’ (Rom. 1:21). 
In these scriptures we learn that like as the world was in darkness 
when God began the work of His redemption, so is the heart of 
man in darkness until it is entered by Jesus. As God’s first act in 
preparing the world for man’s occupancy was to give physical 
light, so Christ’s first work of redemption in us is to give us spirit- 
ual light. Superstition and ignorance and sin and Satan have 
blinded us to all that is dangerous and bad, and also to all that 
is best and highest in life. Speaking of the unsaved, Paul says 
“The god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving 
(2 Cor. 4:4). Jesus calls His followers “The children of light” 
(Lu. 16:8) and Himself “The Light of the world” (John 8:12). 


Of the far distant past it could be said “In the beginning 
—God.” God was old, “The Ancient of Days,’ when the heavens 
and earth felt the first stir of life in the womb of the universe. 
The oldest child is light. The night and darkness of the world 
was touched into splendor by the brooding Spirit of God. There 
in the beginning God said “Let there be light” and began to unfold 
the universe. Then far down in the advanced course of things, 
Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world, and in that suggestion 
shows that the spiritual world is as the physical world, without 
light. If then, we would know what Jesus does for men, we must 
consider what is the nature of light and what it does for physical 
world. 


16. Light as a Symbol of Jesus. What an illustration of 
Christ and His work is light! It is one of the most suggestive of 
all the figures used concerning Him. Many think it is the very 
finest of all the New Testament symbols by which He and His 
work are described. Surely it expresses a vast deal about Him. 


(1) First of all light is universal. It gives its blessings alike 
to all—to the rich and poor, to the ignorant and wise, to the re- 
putable and disreputable. It shines alike upon city and town and 
country-side, upon palace and hovel. Like Jesus it is absolutely 
partial to none and is prepared and offered to all men. His shin- 


28 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


‘ing is unto the ends of the earth and all sinners may have Jesus, 
if they will. And more still there is a ray suited for every type of 
‘being. Vast is the difference in the eyes of God’s different crea- 
‘tures. Some can see afar off, others can only see at close range. 
“some have ability to apprehend one and others another length of 
‘light wave. But there is something suitable for all. In like man- 
ner Jesus is made for all men. The wise and learned are challenged 
by His wisdom and profundity; the ignorant and unlettered are 
attracted by His simplicity. He meets alike the need of the cul- 
tured who have the most delicate regard for life of all sorts and 
of the savage, man-eating cannibal of the jungle. He equally satis- 
fies and fulfills the highest good in men of all races and colors. 
He is the world’s one universal personality—the Son of Man— 
and can not be claimed by any class or nation or race. He is 
Savior and Lord of all. 


(2) In the next place, light reveals. It uncovers to us both 
‘the good and the bad. Two evils may grow out of our being in 
the dark. On the one hand we may be kept in fear of dangers 
that do not exist and need the light to dispel our false fear. On 
the other hand we may be resting in a feeling of perfect security 
and need the light to show us the dangers that exist all around 
us. Such has been the case with many a man when his physician 
diagnosed his case and told him that he was possessed with a mor- 
tal disease. He felt well even when in danger of an early death, 
And it is surprising sometimes how little light is needed. One 
ray passing into a dark room will discover to us all the dust 
particles in its pathway. In some such way as this Jesus came 
to be the Light of the world. He has so shined upon us as to 
show us life, both as it really is and as it should be. He shows 
us both ourselves and God. With it all He has shown us much 
that is bad. But let us not be disconsolate, if, by His shining 
into our hearts, He has revealed the existence of that which is ill. 
We are simply learning the first day’s lesson, and in spite of all 
that it discloses the light itself is good. Let us welcome it as 
from God. It is the beginning of His gracious work in us and 
gives promise of the day that is to come. Without this Light 
from Heaven we should have gone on in our sins and would have 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 22 


come to the judgment with no preparation to meet Him. How 
good it was of Him to come and show us our need! And further- 
more He shows us the future. The other life is revealed in Him. 
After this life he still had the same personality. He was still 
interested in the same things and in the same people. What a 
comfort is that! We shall live on after this life. We shall still 
be ourselves; only glorified. We shall love the same things, and 
be interested in the same things. What comfort concerning our- 
selves and our loved ones! ‘They are the same persons eternally. 
Like Jesus they still have interest in us as they did before death. 
What revelations He did make of sin and salvation, of man and 
God, of time and eternity! But without Him these things are 
darkness. 


(3) Again light is pure. It can not be contaminated. It 
penetrates all the polution of the atmosphere of our earth and is 
untouched and remains as pure as before it came from its source 
above. In like manner Jesus our Savior came from Heaven to 
earth and lived among our sinful inhabitants and was Himself 
as pure when He returned to Heaven as before He came. He 
could eat and associate with publicans and sinners without be- 
coming sinful. No sin ever marred Him. He left for men the 
record of an unstained character and returned pure to the pure 
source from which He came. And before He went away Pilate 
could say “I find no fault in Him,” and to this day He stands 
forth the one perfect man shows us what we may become in 
Him. 

(4) Moreover, light is both gentle and severe. Nothing else 
is more gentle and soft. How it calms our spirits when its kind- 
ly rays beat upon us! It is so gentle that, although a ray must 
shoot millions of miles from the sun to our earth, it will not make 
a dew drop tremble upon a leaf. So is the gentleness of Jesus. 
He would take little children in His arms and bless them or with 
a touch of sympathy would heal a helpless leper or speak a kind- 
ly word of forgiveness to an adulterous woman. But light is 
also severe. Where its rays are collected and focussed upon any 
combustible material they soon destroy it by fire. So is Jesus 
severe as well as kind. He will burn up the chaff with unquench- 


30 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


able fire and will cast the tares into the fire. He who wept with 
the broken-hearted sisters of the dead Lazarus and put His 
inestimable blessing upon innocent children, also cursed the bar- 
ren fig tree (Mat. 21:12-20). So, too, He who saves the penitent 
sinner will also sit in judgment to condemn and assign to ever- 
lasting judgment all those who do not accept His love. As light, 
He is both gentle and severe. 


(5) Once more light is necessary to life and happiness and 
hope. Even plant and animal life require a certain amount of 
light. In many cases the plant requires more than just light. It 
must have direct rays of the sun and will not grow well in the 
shade. ‘The effect is even more noticeable in man. When wholly 
deprived of light he soon loses all happiness and often also loses 
all reason. Even a cloudy or rainy and gloomy day tells 
tremendously on his'spirit. This is weil understood by ail busi- 
ness men. One can hardly close a trade that involved an ex- 
change of valuable property on such a day. Persons charged 
with soliciting funds for any charitable or religious or benevolent 
cause know that much better success attends their efforts on a 
bright sunny day. The explanation of this is that the light gives 
cheer and joy and optimism to life. It effects our attitude to- 
ward every problem of life and greatly influences our relation 
toward both men and God. 

In all this light is a fit symbol of Jesus. He alone can give 
any true and permanent happiness. He came to give us fulness 
of joy. In the midst of the multitude of disappointments in life 
and facing death as we do constantly and possessed as we are of 
much forboding about the future life, we could have no real 
joy but for the hope and truth we find in the Son of God. But 
we can rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ and through Him see in 
the future our highest and best. Along with this is the other 
fact that He alone can give life. We are dead in our trespasses 
and in our sins, but He makes us alive unto God. Apart from 
Him there is eternal death, but in Him there is everlasting life. 
For He came that we “might have life and that we might have 
it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He is indeed, “the resurrec- 
tion and the life.’ Here is the vital distinction between men. 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 31 


Some are “Sons of darkness’? while others have received the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ (2 Cor. 4:6) and are “The sons of light and the sons 
of the day” (Eph. 5:8). He gives new powers of life for 
this world. How many a dull and stupid youth has bristled with 
alertness of mind as soon as he saw Jesus. See them forge 
rapidly ahead to the places of leadership as soon as Jesus has 
gained control of them. The centers of life are quickened, the 
flame of. life is lightened and something new begins to grow 
in us as soon as Jesus the “Light of the World” touches our 
spirits with His life-giving power. 

Everywhere this fertilizing, creating, life-giving wonder of 
light confronts us. Whether in the sky above or in the earth be- 
low, or in the deeps under the earth we are ever in the presence 
of this begetting power of light. The coal miner brings up 
black fuel from the bowels of the earth. But what are the coal 
beds but huge layers of stored up sunshine. All the immense 
coal fields of the world are nothing but condensed sunlight that 
God has left for our use. It. is the sun’s shed blood turned black. 
In the spring the earth smiles with measureless green. One 
spring is a miracle too great to comprehend. And what can 
we say of all the springs that have thrilled with color and life 
and the song of bird! ‘They are the expression of the creative 

and life-begetting work of light as the earth comes nearer to the 
- sun. Indeed, scientists tell us that, if the sun were suddenly 
blotted out there would not be a sign of animal or vegetable 
life on our planet at the end of seventy two hours. Seas below 
and clouds above would become solid ice and the temperature 
would drop to 260 degrees below zero and all life would cease. 
In like manner there can be no spiritual life apart from Jesus. 
Remove Him and the souls of men die. He begets spiritual life 
and maintains it and whenever a soul is separated from Him it 
dies and that without recovery. 


(6) Then there is the variety of light. This is understood 
best when by means of the prism we break up its rays into the 
beautiful rainbow colors. But light delights in clothing itself 
in myriad shades of colors and is the secret of all that is fair 
‘and beautiful on land or sea, or in the heavens above. All 


32 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


nature with its ten thousand features is constantly saying to us 
“TY am what I am because light is what it is and has painted me 
thus.” Here is a blood red rose. Inquire whence cometh that 
color and the rose will answer back to your soul, “My rich red 
comes from the fiery red of the light of the sun.” Here is 
another whose petals are of tender golden color. It declares 
that it trusts to the same sun and attributes its color to the same 
light from which comes the beauty of its red sister. Then there 
is pink and purple and white and cream with a thousand varieties 
in rose or pink or lily, all announcing the variety of light which 
has painted them. And what shall we say of its wonders painted 
in connection with animal life? See the beauty of bird wonders 
in the forest. There is a bird with a wondrous grey back with 
white and blackish wings, and with tail feathers of delicate 
white. There is another with a glorious tuft of flashing yel- 
low on its head but that yellow is streaked with jet black. 
Another is covered with the most beautiful blue and another in 
a glorious silken green. These creatures, velvet-gowned in white 
and black and saffron and black and blue and green, and a 
thousand others, are but an exhibition of the glorious colorings 
of light. There is a tiger in the jungle. Behold the exquisite 
softness that covers its ferocious body. See those waves of gold 
and bars of black, or see the lion’s mane and there is the versatility 
of light. Here are three grapes, one is purple, one is blue- 
black and one is emerald. Each of them is just a variegated 
globe of sun-juice. 


And how like the doings of Jesus is this varied work of light. 
There is no end to the variety of life that He can make. He makes 
all human trueness and His indwelling expands us into every 
possible type of human largeness and nobility. He masters every 
kind of human temperament and changes the man who cant to 
one who can. He creates in men royalty of every type because 
of His great creative ability. Look at John the ambitious, hot- 
tempered fisherman, only an average human being. Goodness 
and badness are alike in his nature, but he met Jesus and be- 
came His wonderful disciple. His marvelously changed life is 


only one of the rays, one of the beautiful colors that ray forth 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 33 


from Jesus the Light of the World. Then there is Saul of 
Tarsus, the haughty, self-willed Pharisee—slayer of Christians. 
But he fell under the power of the “Light of the World” and 
both his name and his nature are changed. The substance of his 
character was changed, the inmost fibre of his being was re- 
created and the center of his personality moved. And what 
might be said of Peter and Barnabas and Luke and Mark and 
thousands in our day such as Moody or Jerry McCauley or Billy 
Sunday or McClaren or Spurgeon or Milton or Bunyan or Carey! 
Jesus is the explanation of them all. The physical universe is 
no stronger argument for God than is all this varied Christian 
life for the redemptive versatility of Jesus the “Light of the 
World.” ‘There they are, Augustine, Francis, Luther, Calvin, 
Wesley, Edwards, Robertson, Beecher, Brooks, Gladstone, Wood- 
row Wilson, along with Moses and David and Isaiah and Daniel 
and Peter and John and Paul and myriads of others of all shades 
of beauty that are being woven into the rainbow of glory that 
shall crown Jesus our Savior. What wondrous variety thus to 
show beauty and eternal glory in every human soul that will 
accept His light! 


(7) Finally light—pure white light—is invisible. It is com- 
posed of several other colors. It has especially red and blue and 
yellow. This suggests a trinity. When it passes through a prism 
and is broken up then its seven beautiful colors are seen. Nor 
can they be seen unless they are thus broken. So also, it was 
necessary for Jesus to be broken on the cross before we could 
behold in Him the glories of the Father. These seven colors are 
those found in the rainbow which God used as a pledge and 
sign of His covenant law, just as Christ broken on the 
cross is God’s pledge of redemption. 


The incidents of the second and third days may be passed over 
with much briefer notice than has been given to the light created 
on the first. On the second day the firmament was formed. 
God separated the waters above from those below, and -always 
since the waters below have been attracted upward and then 
poured out in blessing in rain upon the earth. This may illus- 
trate how the things above are constantly attracting the things 


34 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


below. ‘The spiritual appeals to the natural and bids it come up 
higher. God above reaches down to man and tries to persuade 
him to set his affection on things above and would indeed lead 
him to live at last with his Maker on high. But what if there 
were no upward attraction of waters, and consequently no rain? 
The waters of the sea would avail nothing for the parching 
earth. It is only after they have been lifted up on high that 
they can rain and bless the world. Nor can we be of real use to 
men until we have been lifted up to heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus and then released upon the earth that ‘we may bless it. 
Again, let us remember that when once this water is drawn up 
out of the seas into the clouds, it is no longer free. It cannot 
choose where it as rain shall fall. In like manner, those of us 
who have been attracted to Jesus are at His disposal. He has 
the right to put us anywhere in the world He wishes and to 
use us to bless men as He will. Once more we call to mind 
that in being attracted to the clouds above and before they again 
fall to the earth, the waters are purified. The purest water 
of all is that which falls as rain. It may be drawn up from 
a stream full of death-dealing germs but it is purified in the pro- 
cess. So is the soul of man—corrupt. But when it is drawn 
up to Jesus by the power of the Cross, that soul is cleansed and 
changed from danger to a blessing. 


The work of the third day divides itself into two parts. The 
first work of the day was to recover the earth from its submerged 
condition and cause it to stand forth as dry ground. He raised 
the earth from the watery grave of waste in which it was buried. 
This is a figure of the resurrection life or the renewed spiritual 
life. The sinner was dead in sin and had to be made alive unto 
God in Jesus Christ, just as this fallen earth had to be brought 
up and out of the waters of waste that covered it. This was 
accomplished by the word of God and we have the dry ground. 
It is recovered from its loss and ruin. 


The second work of this day was to cause this raised earth to 
produce grass and herbs and trees. ‘These it produced from 
within. Here is fruitfulness. There had been no fruit up to this 
time, at least since the earth lapsed. The resurrected earth he- 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 35 





came fruitful. It was its nature to do so. This is the order in 
the spiritual world. The sinner who has been raised with Christ 
to a new life is capable of producing fruit to God. Nor is he able 
to produce such fruit until he has been so raised. Try as much 
as they will, the wicked cannot serve God acceptably. They must 
first be saved by the power and word of God. 


It is to be noted here, also that the whole order is valuable. 
First there is light, then the firmament which furnished an at- 
traction from above and then the earth comes forth and clothes 
herself in grandeur. So in the work of grace. We are given 
spiritual light, then we are drawn up toward God by the power 
of Jesus on the cross, and then we come forth as new born from 
spiritual death. After that we begin to bear fruit unto the Lord. 
Moreover we should notice that in the first three things God 
acts from without. The earth could do nothing of itself, just 
as a sinner can do nothing in the matter of saving himself. 
But, when it was thus recovered from its burial, it had in it the 
power of fruit bearing. So likewise the saved man will from the 
nature within him bear fruit to the glory of God. It is the very 
nature of the Christian to bear such fruit. A life of righteous- 
ness and service springs naturally out of the divine seed planted 
in him in the new birth. 


17. The Sun as a Symbol. The study of light which God 
called forth on the first day calls for a study of the two great 
light holders—-the sun and moon—which were formed on the 
fourth day. And first of all we are interested in the sun as a 
figure of Jesus. The Scripture gives us full authority for com- 
paring Him to the sun. The prophet in speaking of His coming 
said, “The Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his 
wings” (or beams), Mal. 4:2. It should be noted that it is 
“Sun” and not “Son” of righteousness. Zacharias says that He 
came as the “dayspring (or sun-rising) from on high,” Luke 1 :78. 
In these two passages we are taught that what the sun-is to light 
Christ is to righteousness and that as the sun-rising chases 
away the darkness, so Jesus clears away our shadows and 
brightens the gloomy and hopeless in our lives. A few com- 
parisons will suffice. 


36 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


(1) The sun originates and sends forth light. What vast 
and amazing abundance of light he radiates! Where does he 
get in the boundless supplies of fuel? Who stokes the fires of the 
sun that he may continue his blaze of light. It springs up out 
of the very nature of the sun. It is begotten and bred and born 
out of his heart. The sun cannot help shining. ‘To cease to 
shine, to cease to send forth his glorious rays would be to cease to 
be the sun. In the same way Jesus is the “Sun of righteous- 
ness.” As the sun gives forth rays of light, Jesus sheds forth 
His rays of righteousness. He is the origin of all righteousness. 
It is in His very nature to show forth righteousness, and to cease 
to manifest it would be impossible by reason of His very nature. 
All righteousness of men forever came from Him and in the next 
world men will as the redeemed remain righteous eternally, be- 
cause they will be eternally supplied from His abundance. 


(2) The sun is the center of our system. Our world system 
is under the spell of the power of the sun. All the lesser lights 
and orbs revolve around it. Its rising chases away the mists and 
shadows of the night and gladdens all creation with its shining. 
With the rising of the sun birds are set to singing and men re- 
turn to their useful occupations. Everything depends upon this 
great luminary of the day that brings all of our light and heat. 
How forcefully does this suggest the glorious supremacy of 
Jesus in all the spiritual realm. Everything in the spiritual world 
depends upon Him and is controlled by Him. All other spiritual 
forces are under His mastery and throughout all the vast eternity 
He will be the center of attraction and interest and joy to all of 
the redeemed and to all of the spiritual principalities and powers 
in Heaven. There is not now and never will be any other to whom 
we may go for spiritual light and blessing. 

(3) The sun is unchangeable and inexhaustible. Helmholtz, 
whose theory is now commonly accepted, says that the sun’s bulk 
is gradually being contracted and that the energy thus generated 
is turned into heat and from this comes our light. The amount 
of heat given off per year according to estimates would require 
the sun’s radius to contract only 150 feet. This would not be 
noticeable by the most powerful telescope for 10,000 years and 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 37 


this contraction would have to continue ten million years before 
the sun would be too dead to sustain life in its entire solar sys- 
tem. And how inexhaustible is the sun’s supply of light and 
heat. Professor Simon Newcombe estimates that the amount 
of heat thrown off by the sun every hour is equal to the burning 
of coal enough to cover the entire surface of the sun twenty feet 
deep. 

This boundless sun energy and the constancy with which it 
continues to shine is a noble illustration of the unchangeableness 
and inexhaustibleness of Jesus. The physical sun will be finally 
extinguished, but only as the whole world system ends. But 
Jesus cannot fail. He is the vitality and genius of the Godhead 
and of all eternity. He had no beginning and will have no ending. 


And what must be the effect of this continuous shining on 
the souls of men. It gives growth here as does all light. How 
great then must be the spiritual stature of those who, in the spir- 
it world where He is the light, continue through centuries to dwell 
in the fulness of His light. If Stephen’s face glowed in His light 
as he fell under the power of the stones of his enemies, how, 
it must glow like a ruby smitten by the sun. As this unchange- 
able light continues throughout eternity to fall upon us our prog- 
ress and beauty shall continue. This inexhaustible supply shall 
be ours forever. 


(4) The sun dwells in the heavens. ‘There, with all the 
planets looking up to it, the sun keeps well out of physical touch 
of any of them. Here is a beautiful figure of Jesus, who came 
to earth and return again to Heaven, God’s dwelling place, 
whence He now sheds down upon us His unchanging light and 
blessing. Soon also He will come again. And then He will 
dispel forever all the darkness of life and will bring the dawning 
of a bright and cloudless morning which, because of His glorious 
shining, will lengthen out into the never ending day of glory. 


18. The Moon as a Symbol. The moon is wonderfully dii- 
ferent from the sun. It is a secondary light, the light of the 
night, but originates no light of its own. It is cold and dark 
compared with the sun from which all of its light is derived. 


38 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


In its nature, in its relation to the sun, and in its purpose and 
use to men the moon finally illustrates the relation and work of 
the church when thought of in connection with Christ. If the 
sun illustrates Jesus and His work, the moon represents the 
church and its work. For of the disciples of Jesus it is said, “Ye 
are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). 


(1) Originates no light. In this connection it is of absorb- 
ing interest to note that the moon originates no light. She has 
none of her own. Her task is to stand in the pathway of the light 
of the sun and reflect his light back to the darkened earth. 
Without the sun she could do nothing. She does not show forth 
her own glory, but that of the sun whose light bathes her cold 
and helpless face. Beautiful suggestion! ‘The business of the 
church and of every Christian is to let the heavenly light of Jesus 
shine on them and to reflect it in undimmed brightness to the 
bedarkened souls of other men. Nor can we originate any light 
from within ourselves. And since she has no light of her own 
the church is not called upon to show herself to the world, but 
to manifest Jesus from whom she receives the light. She must 
exhibit the traits of character of Jesus, and thus show forth a 
copy of Him. It is a pitiable sight to see a Christian or a church 
trying to make a display of self. Like the moon we have noth- 
ing of our own worth showing. To attempt any such dispiay 
is to descend to a very low and unworthy task and always fore- 
tokens the shame and coming humiliation of the one thus pros- 
tituting the purpose to which we are appointed. 


(2) Shines when the Sun is out of sight. Nor does the moon 
display the glory shed upon her except when the sun is out of 
sight. When the sun arises in the morning the moon loses her 
radiance and is content to be wholly overshadowed by him. In 
just such a fashion we represent Jesus. He, as the eternal “Light 
of the world,” came to our earth, but is now departed again into 
the heavens. He is not seen by the unbelieving world, but the 
church sees Him and reflects His glorious spiritual light upon 
the darkened hearts of sinful men. The chief duty of the church 
is to let the heavenly light of Jesus shine upon her and pass it 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 39 


on to others who are in need. ‘Then, too, He will come back 
again. As the sun returns at the morning time and the moon 
retires while the world revels in the fulness of the presence of the 
king of day, so will Jesus come again and the church will 
cease to be the light of the world. We represent Him only in 
His absence. He will be here again and will be all and in all 
and His glory will fill all. Tull that day come, we must be faith- 
ful, but pray for and rejoice in the hope of that coming eternal 
day with Jesus. 


(3) Changeableness of the Moon. And how changeful is the 
moon! She has none of the constancy and eternal changeless- 
ness of the sun. She is sometimes but a mere crescent, some- 
times a quarter or half moon, but is rarely seen full-orbed in 
the heavens. At best she is but a poor representative of the sun, 
and is seldom at her best, doing her utmost shining. Here is a 
figure of the church. What a reflection! We are such poor 
reflectors. ‘The image of Jesus is but poorly seen in us at the 
best. For us to live should be for Christ to live. Our walk and 
talk should portray His spirit and deeds. But most of the time 
we are turned away from Him in part and people can see but 
little of us that seems Christian. Only occasionally, perhaps 
when some great crisis or test has come to us, or during periods 
of special revival power, do we become aglow with the fine ef- 
fulgence of the shining of Jesus in our lives. And the pity is 
that the world gropes in a bedimmed light most of the time. 


(4) The Moon sometimes unseen. ‘Then, too, there are times 
when the moon is not seen at all. This condition arises only 
under two circumstances. One is when the earth and its mists 
come between the sun and the moon. This is most suggestive. 
The earth, which the moon is intended to light, prevents that light. 
This is precisely the parallel to the situation with the church. It 
always manifests the light of Jesus to the lost except when this 
world and its influences come between us and Him. Here is 
our high duty—to see to it that no earthly influence shall in- 
tervene to eclipse the light we should shed forth upon men. If 
we could go up to the moon when in her glory, we would find 


40 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


that we were not in the glory of the moon, but would be bath- 
ing in the glory of the sun and her rays of splendor. So when 
a sinner is attracted by the church and comes to behold her for 
himself, he should find himself in the blessed light of Jesus, her 
source of light. 


But what a calamity, if the sinner comes to the church and 
finds not the light of Jesus. Jesus calls us to “Let your light so 
shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify 
your father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). Again he warned 
us, “If therefore the light is in thee be darkness, how great 
is that darkness” (Matt. 6:23). Without our shining the world 
will be in darkness. The responsibility cannot be shirked. ‘To 
meet this obligation will be everlasting praise, to default in it 
will be unspeakable shame. And let us, in the face of all the 
allurements of this world, remember constantly that it is only 
worldliness that can dim our light for Jesus and the lost. 


In this connection it is interesting to note that the moon some 
times shuts the earth up in darkness by herself getting between 
the sun and the earth. The sun is eclipsed by the moon. This 
is the other circumstance when the moon fails to give light. The 
very planet that was intended to give light when the sun is out of 
sight gets in the way when it otherwise ought to be in sight. 
Certainly that is a most unfortunate situation. But just this 
happens also in the case of Christ and the church. His light 
is not only shut off from men because worldly influence comes 
between us and Jesus, but we sometimes actually come in be- 
tween Jesus and the men He would otherwise reach. What a 
perversion of life is that? Those who should show Jesus to 
men so get in the way that men cannot see Him, if they try. 
The worldly influences which they have allowed to come be- 
tween them and Jesus have put them in a position such that they 
shut off Christ from the men He would save. It is the old story 
of standing in the way of sinners, one that every Christian must 
constantly guard against. 


(5) Reflects only part of the light. Once more let us take to 
heart the lesson of the fact that the moon can only reflect a part 
of the light. Of the three basic colors—red, blue and yellow—it 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 41 


can only reflect the yellow. And when we recall the function 
of these three elements of light, this fact will become increasing 
suggestive. The function of the blue light is to give life. De- 
prived of that the life germ does not develop in the seed of the 
plant. The fruit will become full grown and beautifully ripe, if 
through a prism the blue rays are cut off from it, but the seed 
in it will not sprout and spring into life. It must come under 
this life-giving blue to secure life in itself. The function of 
the red light is to heat, and by that heat to nurture and develop 
the life. Without that element the life given by the blue could 
not continue. And without a suitable amount of it there could 
be no comfort for that life. The simple and only purpose of 
the yellow in light is to illumine—to guide. But the blue, that 
heavenly color which alone can give life, and the red which alone 
can sustain life are not found in the rays reflected by the moon 
and hence it can neither give nor sustain life. 


What of the analogy! The church, which is analogous in po- 
sition to that of the moon, has no power to do more than illu- 
minate. No church or individual Christian; no preacher or pre- 
late; no priest or pope can either give or withhold life. Nor can 
they sustain it after it is given. There is no such thing as church 
salvation. Christ alone saves. Nor can the church or any servant 
of it keep us after we are saved. Jesus not only saves but keeps. 
These blessed works He will not commit to the hands of frail 
and imperfect men no matter how devout friends they may be to 
Him. What a joy this fact is! These great powers come con- 
stantly from His unchanging and unchangeable nature and thus 
are safeguarded the interests of all. Our salvation and keeping 
are in His hands and can not be affected by the weakness or 
whims of men. Let the church go on pointing sinners to Jesus 
who is the way and means of salvation, but let no soul hope to 
find salvation except through relation with Jesus and His saving 
power. Merely to unite with the church or to keep its ordinances 
will not save any one. Not the moon but the sun gives life-giv- 
ing light, and not the church but Jesus saves us unto eternal life. 


42 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


Man 


19. Husband and wife. We come next to the consideration 
of man who stands over against all the other works of God’s 
hands as superior to them. We are to think of Adam and Eve, 
the first pair, separately and in their relation to each other and 
to God. And let it be said that we do not make this narrative 
originate any doctrine, but we do use it to illustrate teachings 
found elsewhere. Moreover, we have ample ground in the New 
Testament teaching for using the relation of this husband and 
wife as a figure of Christ and His church. First of all, the hus- 
band and wife and their various relations to each other, are often 
used in the New Testament to teach us concerning Jesus and 
His people (Eph. 5:22-23). Even in the Old Testament the wife 
is frequently used as a figure of God’s people and God speaks 
of being married to Israel. In the next place, Jesus Himself is 
called the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) and we are, thereby, given 
proper sanction for comparing Jesus and Adam in all their re- 
lations and work. 


20. Adam the Head of the Race. The first thing to attract 
our attention when we come to study Adam is that he was made 
in the image of God. He was a spiritual being who had qualities 
of life like those of God. No other of all God’s creatures had 
this distinction. So wonderful is the nature of man that no other 
among all beasts of the field was suited to associate with him 
or to claim a nature like this. God deliberately made him in 
His own likeness. Here is the first high way in which he pre- 
figures Jesus, the last Adam. ‘The writer of Hebrews says of 
Jesus that He was “the efiulgence of His (God’s) glory, and 
the very image of His (God’s) substance’) (Heb. 1:3). Jesus 
Himself says, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” 
He had in Him the very glory of God. If we would see the 
wisdom or power or goodness or grace of God we have only to 
see Jesus. Adam was only a poor human image while Jesus is 
the fulness of Deity, being Himself God. 


In the next place we are impressed with the fact that Adam 
was before all other men. He was the head of the whole race, 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 43 


all of which proceeded out of him. God did not even create Eve 
out of “the dust of the ground’, as He had Adam, but took her 
out of his body so that the whole race should come out of him. 
She would then have his nature and he would bequeath to all of 
his descendants a nature altogether like his own. The whole 
human family, therefore, has like passions and appetites and 
characteristics of weakness and of strength to those of Adam our 
federal head. And like him we have all had similar responsibil- 
ities and have all alike failed, as did he, to measure up to them. 
He was in all things the head of the race of men. If he was sin- 
ful, so are they. If he fell under the curse of the law, they 
fell too. If he is destined to die, so are they. In all this he was 
a fit representative and prefiguring of Jesus who is the head of 
all things and especially of the spiritual family of God. Indeed 
He begins a new and redeemed race like unto Himself. This is 
a gracious thought that the redeemed have been given a nature 
like that of Jesus so that they love righteousness and love God 
and lost souls like He does. Then, too, having a similar nature, 
and being inseparably linked with Him, they have the same des- 
tiny that He has. If he does not die, we shall not die. If He 
is admitted into the Father’s presence in peace, then we are 
“accepted in the beloved.” If He is crowned King of kings and 
Lord of lords we shall reign with Him as priests and kings unto 
God. Jesus Himself said to the Father, “The glory thou hast 
given to me, I have given to them also” (Jno. 17:22). The 
Christian’s relation to Him, then, is parallel to the relation of all 
mento Adam. There never was and never will be but these “two 
Adams,” but these “two federal heads” of the race. One is 
physical, the other spiritual. One is head of the fallen and the 
other is the head of the spiritual race. 


21. Eve, Adam’s Wife. The next matter of vital interest 
in this story is the creation of Eve, the wife of Adam, and the 
place she occupied. And first of all we should consider the 
purpose of her creation. The explanation of this is found in 
the fact that God saw that it was “Not good that man should 
be alone’ (Gen. 2:18). He saw that woman was needful for 
the complete well-being, development and happiness of Adam. 


44 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


She was, therefore, made for the benefit of man. When applied 
to Jesus and the church this is a thought of profound significance. 
If the church occupies a relation to Him similar to that which 
Eve had to Adam, then the church was needful to Jesus. And 
just as God would not leave the first Adam without a “help- 
meet,’ so He would not leave Jesus, the last Adam, alone. As 
Adam would be incomplete and a blank in creation without Eve, 
so Jesus would be incomplete in the New Creation without His 
bride, the church. 


This view will furnish us a new and exalted conception of 
our redemption. Such a view of our salvation gives it a far 
wider and deeper significance than the mere blessedness and 
security of the individuals who are saved. It suggests that we 
are somehow needful to Christ. His glory is, in some mysterious 
way, involved in and connected with the existence of the church. 
I am, therefore, entitled, and that on the authorship of the Scrip- 
ture, to count myself as a part of that which is needful to the 
Savior. Here, then, is the chief interest in the work of redemp- 
tion. It is not primarily for our sakes, but for Christ’s. ‘This 
also makes our salvation all the more secure. For as believers 
we cannot doubt that there is ample provision for all of our 
necessities, both temporal and eternal, because it is necessary 
to the glory and honor of Jesus. This view is borne out by such 
statements as that where Isaiah says, “He shall see of the 
travail of his soul and be satisfied.’ Somehow He was not 
satisfied apart from the church which He redeemed. He wanted 
some one on whom to lavish His affections. He wanted to make 
a sacrifice comparable to His nature. This is also brought out in 
the great analysis of the spiritual blessings we have received 
(Eph. 1:3-14) in which he three times declared that it was all 
to the praise of the glory of His grace. Our salvation, then, 
is not primarily for our happiness, but for Christ’s. It is more 
His matter than ours. We are saved for Christ’s sake. 


22. Eve’s Creation—the First Shadowing of the Cross. In 
this connection, we should consider the manner of Eve’s crea- 
tion. Jehovah caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and took 
out one of his ribs and out of it formed (or built) the woman 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 45 


(Gen. 2:21-22). She was, therefore, bone of his bone and 
flesh of his flesh. This also made them of one nature and 
formed the eternal ground of the marriage relation. Eve, his 
help-meet, was provided by his own suffering and that to the point 
of shedding his blood. Her creation was indeed a miracle which 
could be performed alone by Deity. 


How like the church, Christ’s bride, is all this! As above 
indicated, she was needful to Him, but she could not be pre- 
pared except through His suffering. It took the shedding of His 
precious blood, because His death alone could prepare that spirit- 
ual material out of which the church could be built. It should 
also be said that just as Eve was of one nature with Adam, and 
had before God the same standing with him, so through His death 
and suffering, Jesus imparts to us His own Divine nature, and 
_destines us to become like Him. 


Moreover, we find here the first shadowing forth of the cross. 
It is the first case of the shedding of blood and that by the First 
Adam who was a figure of Jesus, the Last Adam. Its shedding 
also made possible his wife with all the consequent blessing, just 
as Christ purchased unto Himself the Church, the Lamb’s wife 
by the shedding of His blood. And, furthermore, it was God 
Himself who shed Adam’s blood to provide her. It certainly is 
very suggestive that the first blood ever shed upon earth should 
have been to provide an illustration of the suffering and death 
of Jesus and that it resulted in a type of the results of His death 
on the cross. The first suffering of earth was human suffering 
and the sufferer was a type of Christ and the result which God 
brought out of that suffering was a type of God’s people. Once 
more Adam suffered before he sinned so that it was a sinless 
sufferer—so that the type is all the more harmonious. Nor was 
a sinner created out of his suffering. Eve, who was formed from 
that rib, was pure, just as God makes us new-born in Christ. 
Born of His blood and Spirit, we are cleansed and made new and 
purged and justified through His blood. 


23. Adam and Eve of Common Task and Destiny. And let 
us not overlook the fact that the woman received all of her 
blessing from Adam, that all of her dignity and honor resulted 


46 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


from her relation to him and, furthermore, that her standing 
before God and in the physical universe was identical with that 
of her husband. If Adam was without condemnation before 
God, so was Eve. If he fell under the power of death, so did 
she. So too, we have Christ’s standing before God. If He is 
uncondemned, so are we as believers without any condemnation 
and we can never be brought under the power of sin and death 
unless Jesus sins and falls. God had created Adam in His own 
image and had created her out of a part of Adam’s body, but, 
when He blessed and commissioned them for their life work, 
He put them jointly in authority over all the inferior orders of 
creation. ‘They were together to subdue the world, as well as 
together to multiply and replenish it (Gen. 17:28). Here 
again is an exact picture of our relation to Jesus. We have 
all of our standing before God because of our relation to Him 
and are accepted in Him as the beloved One. As Adam was made 
in the image of God, so He who is the Last Adam is the “very 
image of the substance and the effulgence of the glory of God” 
(Heb. 1:3). And we His bride are transformed into His image, 
from glory to glory, until at last we shall be like Him, because 
“We shall see Him as He is’ (Jno. 3:2). Then, too, we, 
along with Jesus, are to subdue the earth to Him and in His 
blessing we have become joined to Christ in bringing other 
men under subjection to Jesus as our great husband and with 
Him are serving to the end that He may have a race of spiritual 
seed. And besides all this, the Father has put all authority into 
His hands so that He may rule over all and we are at last to 
reign with Him upon His throne as priests and kings unto God. 


Such an understanding of the church’s position and of our re- 
lation to Christ should give us a new sense of joy and peace. 
What love Eve must have had for Adam! What nearness to 
him she must have enjoyed! What intimate fellowship she must 
have had with him and what full participation in all his plans! 
In all his dignity and glory she shared alike with him. He was 
the Lord of the whole creation, but she was one with him in it~ 
all. No other creature was so near to Adam as was Eve, be-- 
cause no other was a part of himself and partaker of his nature. 
Likewise there is no other so close and so dear to Jesus as 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 47 


is His church. How He does love her and how He does rejoice 
to make her happy! And as His bride how we should love Him 
and strive to promote His interests! He joyfully shares all 
with us. Indeed, when, as the Lord from Heaven, He shall take 
His seat on the everlasting throne to rule over a restored creation, 
He will do it in companionship with His bride, the church. And 
in all His coming glory she will hold the nearest and most 
glorious place. 


But there is also a present glory for us. We are Christ’s now 
and not just for the future. We are now members of His body 
(Eph. 5:30), He being the Head. The Church is now the tem- 
ple of the Holy Spirit—the dwelling place of God. We may 
now have gracious fellowship and converse with Jesus, and 
what a holy and devoted and separate and elevated life of good 
works all this present and future glory demands of us! How 
careful we should be to allow our affections to be given to no 
other! What care we should exercise that our daily life may 
be worthy of our high calling in Christ Jesus. 


24. The Sabbath. The Sabbath idea has a great place in 
the word of God. On the seventh day God rested from all His 
work. He had completed all this great universe and ceased His 
work of construction. He was not however inactive for He had 
still to guide and govern His world. He blessed this day and 
thereby declared it to be an object of divine favor and made it 
a day of blessing to His creation. He also sanctified or de- 
clared it to be holy and set it apart for holy purposes. It was in- 
stituted in the interest of holiness. It is to be noted that this 
seventh day on which God rested was not the seventh but the 
first day of man’s life. The Eden Sabbath was the first day of 
human life. It was observed when there was no more creative 
work to do. And it could be celebrated only in the midst of an 
undefiled creation—a creation which was in no wise marred by 
sin. 


Now this Sabbath of God became a figure of the rest and final 
glory of completed redemption. We are told that there “remain- 
eth a rest (or Sabbath keeping) for the people of God.” The 


48 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


people of God will rest from the exertions of life, from toil and 
weariness, from sin and sorrow and all their powers will be em- 
ployed in meditating upon the glories of God and in doing His 
will. In it then God condescended to become man’s archetype 
and exemplar. The Sabbath was not made for God. Jesus said 
“The Sabbath was made for man.” It is one of three things man 
brought out of Eden that was given before the fall—labour, 
marriage and the Sabbath. It was, therefore, made for man 
as man, for the first man, as the progenitor of all races and 
nations. It was made for him in Paradise as a fundamental law 
for his normal nature. It was before man sinned and in Eden 
was a companion with the tree of life. It was a promise of re- 
demption from the curse pronounced upon the earth. And hence 
Lamech who longed for the rest, or Sabbath keeping, named 
his son Noah, which means rest. It came before death and 
its sweet and everlasting rest will be shoreless and bottomless 
when death shall be no more. It commenced before man needed 
a mediator between himself and God, and it will be the eternal 
portion of the people of God when the mediatorial kingdom of 
Christ has been surrendered to the Father. That first Sabbath 
which God made for man then is the figure of our eternal Sab- 
bath of salvation where there will be no sin that can ever mar 
it as was the first. 


25. Man’s First Home. One could not fail to see that there 
is some relation between the garden of Eden, man’s first home, 
and his last heavenly home. The garden or paradise was in Eden 
and in it were the river and tree of life and of death. It was 
a place of pleasantness. There was in it beauty and plenty and 
genuine sources of blessing. The streams of water out-flowing 
in four directions carried with them the Eden life to all the ends 
of the earth and are a prophecy that the whole earth is to have 
an Eden like beauty and pleasantness. Let us note: (1) The 
place of the tree of life and the tree of death (knowledge of 
good and evil). They stand here together and they still hold a 
place together in all the spheres of human life. Both life and 
death are everywhere. Through the results of the tree of death 
the blessings of the tree of life and the other good of this early 


THE SEVEN DAYS’ WORK 49 


paradise were lost. But the word of grace teaches us how the 
sin stricken and dying world is to be restored to the Paradise of 
divine blessing. In his closing vision John the Revelator shows 
us this restored Paradise with only the tree of life and the water 
of life. The evil has all been cast out with the death which it 
brought and the new-made inhabitants are taking freely of its 
eternal pleasures. (2) The oft recurrence of the tree of life 
and water (river of life) in the Scripture. These two link to- 
gether the paradise of unfallen man with that of redeemed man, 
They were actual channels of life and blessing, but were also 
figures of salvation. When one was lost by sin only thetr promise 
of the Savior remained. After long preparation periods have 
passed looking toward that redemption (Ezekiel 47:1-12) re- 
produced the imagery of Eden, but adapted it to the need of 
fallen man. The stream is especially to heal and has its source 
from the mercy seat. Its trees are not different from the tree of 
life and furnished food and medicine. But it clearly refers to 
a future time. They may be referred to again when Jesus talks 
of Himself and the water of life and of the living water. But 
before the book of God closes these symbols are seen again in the 
vision of John on Patmos (Rev. 2:7; 22:1-2, 14, 19). Here the 
river is described as having its source from under the throne 
of God. This is the last place where this river is found. Here 
is stability. Its source can never be touched nor can its channel 
ever be interrupted. ‘Then there is the Lamb, and His presence 
shows that all this blessing rests upon an accomplished redemp- 
tion. Here again is the tree of life which perpetually produces 
that which is for food and healing. The river of Eden dividing 
into four directions suggests that it is obligated to carry the 
Eden blessing to all parts of the world. There is here a fit 
prophecy of the Gospel, spreading throughout the world, bringing 
healing and pardon, light and life, strength and guidance and 
enabling men everywhere to rejoice in hope. But here at the last 
we have the throne of God right in the center of the Paradise 
regained and from under that throne bubbling up the streams 
of the waters of life and on either side of it is the tree of life 
bearing perpetual food and healing for all the inhabitants. It 
is the antitype of the earthly garden of Eden. But its tree never 


50 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


ceases to bloom, its fruit never ceases to ripen, the music of its 
stream as it flows never hushes and every ripple of it says, 
“Life, life, eternal life. It is the restoration of all things and 
those who are present and have a right to the tree of life are those 
who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb (Rev. 22: 14; 7:9, 14).” 


CHAPTERGTV 


The Story of the Fall 


Questions and Themes For Study. (1) What description of Satan 
is given or implied in the whole story? (2) What did Satan promise 
Eve as a gain, if she would disobey God? 3:5, 22. (3) What four results 
followed the sin? 3:7, 8, 14-19. (4) What did God ask Adam and Eve? 
and what answer did each make? 3:9-13. (5) What methods and pur- 
pose of punishment for wrong doing are discovered here? 3:7-24. (6) 
What promises and provisions are made for man? 3:15, 21. (7) What 
are some of the traditions about the fall. 


26. The Story. This story is so familiar that one is 
tempted to pass over it without discussion. But I am re- 
minded that our familiarity does not guarantee that we have 
understood all of its far-reaching significance. In truth our 
very knowledge of the facts of the narrative may have kept 
us from devoting any study to it. At any rate one is con- 
vinced from all that one reads in the way of discussion upon 
it that there are many foolish and erroneous notions about 
the story. Then, too, it is quite clear that but few students 
and writers have gotten much out of it that would remind 
one of Jesus and His redemptive work. 


And yet, this is the story of the initial conduct of this first 
human pair. They are for the first time acting upon their 
own initiative. One is keenly interested to know the incen- 
tives that will move them to action and to see what result 
will follow when they have acted. One would somehow ex- 
pect to find in connection with it some reference to the need 
of the Savior and some suggestion as to His redemptive work. 
This expectation is all the more natural by reason of the 
fact that we are studying a book (the Bible), the expressed 
purpose of which is to bring us a revelation of the Divine 
plan of human salvation. We would be justified in expect- 
ing that in this inaugural action, we would find some evi- 
dence of their need of redemption. Or we might look for 


52 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


some suggestion or for some illustration of the way by which 
they are to be saved. We would not be surprised to find 
some expression of the saving or redemptive nature of God. 
Indeed we would be disappointed if we did not find it. All 
of this is found and more. 

27. The Temptation and Fall. We are shown first of all 
how man came to sin and the consequent fall and need of 
salvation. Satan, the great enemy of both God and man, as- 
sailed the woman and the dialogue between the serpent and 
the woman so portrays the acts and motives involved in the 
fall that the youngest and most unlearned readers can fully 
understand them. The temptation appealed to the three 
most dangerous elements of our fleshly nature. The fruit was 
good for food, beautiful to look upon and would make her wise. 
It, therefore, appealed to the craving of appetite, aroused her 
aesthetic taste and stirred in her the desire for knowledge. 
Thus the temptation appealed to the lust of the flesh, the pride of 
the eye and the pride of life, all of which were in the temptation of 
Jesus. Like all temptations it gave promise of bettering her 
own condition. We would yield to none except for the hope 
of gaining social, financial, intellectual or other advantage. 
The first evil act was to call in question the word of God. 
That was an act of unbelief and was the cause of the fall. 
From then untilnow the world has been shut up in unbelief. 
This first pair broke faith with God and took the word of 
Satan instead of God’s. And having sinned wilfully by fol- 
lowing their own desires in the face of God’s command they 
were fully responsible for all of the far-reaching results that 
followed. Here lies the reason why man’s redemption is 
through belief. Believing takes us back to where we separated 
from God. 


28. The Effects of the Fall. The terrible effects of the fall 
began at once to manifest themselves and were of two kinds. 
(1) Immediate and natural effects. They at once received 
a knowledge of good and evil and began to feel the power 
of an accusing conscience. This brought to our great first 
pair of human beings a sense of guilt and shame and left 


THE STORY OF THE FALL 53 


them conscience-striken and terrified creatures. Their eyes 
were opened. But alas! what did they see? Their own 
sin! Nor did this sense of nakedness drive them to God, but 
away from Him. They felt a sense of alienation from God 
and discovered at once they were no longer fit to associate 
with God as they had formerly done. This sense of shame 
and remorse led them to hide themselves from the presence 
of God and caused them to attempt to remedy the loss they 
had sustained. Such is always the case with the sinner. He 
tries to cover up the sins he has committed. Such efforts 
are always a confession of guilt and are often the first evi- 
dence of a lapse of conduct. When Adam heard Jehovah 
coming “in the cool of the day” he was afraid and hid him- 
self, and said “I was naked” (3:8-10). He had already put 
upon himself the apron of fig leaves, but that covering did 
not satisfy his own conscience. This is what the conscience 
always does for us—first leads us to try to remedy or cover 
up the results of our sins and then, in the consciousness of 
haviug failed, drives us in terror away from the presence ot 
God. But the soul thus separated from God becomes cor- 
rupt. This is spiritual death and is the natural result of sin. 
(2) Judicial and future effects. But there were other effects 
of their sin besides their accusing consciences and the sudden 
change in their conduct. God came down to judgment and 
pronounced a judicial sentence that affected the serpent, the 
man and the woman, and the earth. Satan would fiually 
be destroyed. Sorrow and pain and death were introduced 
and all of their posterity fell under the curse. [ven in our 
day every pain of our bodies, every necessary drudgery or 
hardship, every earthly disorder, such as storm or flood or 
earth-quake, and every grim hour of death is a fresh declara- 
tion of the awful tragedy of Adam’s fall. 


29. Man’s Utter Helplessness. In all this we see that man 
has lost his dominion, his dignity, his innocence, his purity, 
his happiness and his peace. We are shown that he could 
not, himself, repair all of this loss. His efforts to cover up 
his nakedness and thereby establish a righteousness of his 


54 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


own, were of no avail. Sin had to be put away, but he could 
not do it. Satan’s head needed to be bruised, but he was now 
the servant of satan arid could not do that. God’s claims 
upon him had to be met, but he could not meet them because 
he had willfully and knowingly trampled them under his 
feet. Death had to be abolished, but he could not abolish 
it, because he himself had fallen under its power. Thus we 
see how futile are all man’s efforts to recover what he. has 
lost in the fall. Yea, more, we should learn how presump- 
tuous it is for him to try to assist God in the far-reaching 
and stupendous work of redemption. That would be to say 
that He is not able to save. 


30. What Man Did Not Know of God. But here is also 
found a great source of joy. We are not only given a revela- 
tion of man and his terrible plight, but we are also shown 
what God is. This is especially brought out by the fall of 
man. Adam had not learned to think of God except in terms 
of His hatred of sin. He knew only of God’s holiness: and 
power and wisdom. But there was in God vastly more than 
that. There was love and mercy and goodness and tender- 
ness and long-suffering. But these had never been displayed 
and they could not be displayed except in a world of sinners. 
Satan came with an awful purpose to ruin man, but the havoc 
he wrought in man furnished God an opportunity to reveal 
Himself as a redeeming God. The story, therefore, may be 
expected to show us some manifestation of grace. 

In this expectation we are not disappointed. For just as 
God had at first come to create—first all things, then man 
—so now as soon as satan had meddled with His creation. 
He came down again, and this time to show forth His sal- 
vation. His first word was one of interest in man, one of 
seeking. He called unto Adam saying “Where art thou?” 
(chapter 3:9). This question of Jehovah has furnished the 
basis for many a noble discussion of God’s effort to recover 
lost men. It revealed the double truth, first that man was 
lost and second that God had come to seek and find and re- 
cover him. It was at once a revelation of man’s sinfulness 


THE STORY OF THE FALL 55 


and of God’s grace. It called these first sinners to confess 
their sins and invited them to cast themselves upon His mercy 
to consider their condition and let Him remedy it for them. 


31. What God Revealed of Himself. It showed how God had 
come down to call fallen man out of his hiding place among 
the trees of the garden. It indicated that, though He had 
been gravely offended by him, He would restore man to a 
place of peace and fellowship with Jehovah, his Maker. Here 
is a seeking Savior on the lookout for a fallen and helpless 
sinner. It is an offended God searching out and showing 
mercy to an offending enemy and 1s, therefore, a manifesta- 
tion of that grace He was afterward to reveal to us in Jesus 
Christ. 


As has already been remarked Adam’s conscience had 
driven him away from God and into hiding among the trees, but 
the Divine revelation brought him out of that hiding and again 
put him in the presence of God. The knowledge of what he 
himself was, in his sin, terrified and shamed him, but the 
revelation of what God was, brought him peace and courage. 
Here was a true meeting-place for God and man. And they 
must certainly meet either in judgment or in grace. But in 
which way we shall meet Him depends upon our view of our- 
selves and of Him. For Adam to realize both what he was 
and what God was, furnished the only real basis of salvation. 
It was necessary for Adam to take his place as a sinner be- 
fore God could and would assume His place as Savior. And 
it is just at this point, where Adam confessed himself a sin- 
ner and God came down as Savior, that God begins to un- 
fold to man His wondrous plan of redemption. This plan 
as here revealed consists of three great elements of hope and 
blessing. (1) A promise of the destruction of Satan through 
the woman’s seed. (2) An act of providing for their present 
need in the clothing given them. (3) A provision for abiding 
mercy through the altar at the east side of the Garden. 


32. Promise of the Redeemer. First, then, let us notice 
the promise which God made to Eve. It was unconditional 
and, therefore, mixed with no uncertainties. It was an uwun- 


. 96 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


dertaking which God had taken upon Himself and was as 
certain of fulfillment as the character of God was true. He 
laid the chief blame upon the serpent and said unto him, “Be- 
cause thou hast done this’, etc. (chapter 3:14). He made it 
a matter between Himself and Satan and declared that He 
- would destroy him. The serpent had been the cause of the 
calamity that had befallen the woman, and she in due time 
was, by means of her seed, to destroy him. In that she 
was also to be the instrument of human redemption. Her 
seed was to bruise the head of the serpent, meaning that it 


would destroy or kill him. On the other hand, the seed of - 


the serpent was to bruise the heel of the woman’s seed. He 
would cripple all of her seed. All of the descendants would 
be weakened by sin. It is the doctrine of human depravity, 
so sadly neglected in our day. It also hints as how satan 
should affect Jesus, her great Seed of salvation. 


This is the first promise of Christ and His redemptive 
work. It teaches most clearly that the victory over satan 
is to be through a conflict of suffering; that the victor is to 
be a human being; that this human victor must be the seed 
of the woman, and not of the man. There must be no human 
father. It 1s a promise that Jesus would come, born of a 
woman and that, through His suffering, He would conquer 
and destroy satan. 

All the rest of the Bible narrative is taken up in unfold- 
ing to us the plan and work of God in fulfilling this promise. 
The effects of satan’s injury of the descendants of Eve, are 
seen in all the history of individuals and of nations as re- 
corded there. The New Testament shows the nature of that 
conflict and how Jesus began to overthrow this great enemy 
of our race. It is significant too how the New ‘Testament 
statements about Jesus exactly meet the suggestions of this 
promise. John says of Him, “To this end was the Son of 
God manifested, that He might destroy (untie or undo) the 
works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). It is also said of Him 
“Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, 
He Himself also took part in the same that through death 


THE STORY OF THE FALL 57 


He might destroy (make barren or unfruitful or idle, or ut- 
terly annihilate) him that hath the power of death, that is 
the devil” (Heb. 2:14). Here is the explanation of the pur- 
pose of the coming of Jesus in the flesh. It was that He 
might destroy the devil and his works. And let us observe 
that it was to be accomplished through the suffering of death. 
It was the fulfilment of the promise made to Eve, that 
through the suffering of her seed, the devil would be brought 
to ruin, and on the cross, Jesus began the work that will ulti- 
mately accomplish the complete overthrow of satan. Jesus 
said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the 
prince of this world be cast out; and I, if 1 be lifted up from 
the earth, will draw all men unto me” (Jno. 12:31-32). He 
will then cast satan into the bottomless pit. 

What a glorious promise for this “seed of the woman”! 
And what a glorious person is Jesus her Seed that the suffer- 
ing of His cross should be spoken of as only the bruising of 
His heel. ‘The cross with its agonies was said to be the most 
horrible of all suffering. Death in that way beggars all 
description. But Jesus was so great a person that He passed 
through it as but an incident of ordinary life. What a tran- 
scendent being was He that this terrible death on Calvary 
should be but the pricking of His heel; And more still that 
the effort put forth by satan in doing it would destroy satan; 
or that the conflict was so unequal that in making His death 
blow the devil would be able to do no more than make the 
most insignificant wound upon Jesus? This suggests the 
superiority of Jesus over satan and physical things and shows 
us how suitable He is for us to trust. The one Supreme Per- 
son, very God, is He and full of majesty and glory. How 
safe from the serpent are all who shelter under His protec- 
tion. 

Let it be remembered here that this promise was made to _ 
Eve and not Adam. ‘The prohibition concerning the fruit of 
the tree in the midst of the garden had been given to Adam 
before Eve was created. She had learned it through him and 
could be tempted by satan to think that Adam had mis- 
understood God. Consequently, the serpent approached her 


98 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 
mS RT MaNGGIEAL LAS RACED SUARTSSL URNS Net ARES SRAUNL LUAU LITRE Eee ECS 


and raised a doubt as to whether God had really forbidden it. 
This is the old question always raised when we discuss world- 
liness. Men at once ask where God forbids it and decide 
it is not wrong to do anything unless it is named in the pro- 
hibitions made by the Lord. This is also the question of the 
inspiration of the Scripture. May not those who wrote it 
have been mistaken or has it not been changed before we got 
it? And hence is it in reality the word of God? ‘These are 
the questions of the skeptic. It is the old question of satan 
to Eve, “Did God say it.” 

Such a temptation could have had no effect upon Adam. 
He knew what God had said and could not have been in- 
fluenced by such a suggestion. The woman could truth- 
fully say “The serpent beguiled me,” Ch. 3:13. But Adam 
was compelled to admit that he had sinned wilfully and with- 
out excuse. It was his sin that introduced death into the 
world so that “death hath passed upon all men” (Rom. 5:12). 
Moreover, redemption could not come through him who had 
brought death. On the other hand, Eve having been de- 
ceived, had in her sin a mitigating cause which opened the 
way for an offer of mercy. To her, therefore, was given the 
promise of redemption. It was her seed and not the seed of 
the man that was to destroy the serpent. 

While this is not the place for the full development of the 
thought, we cannot overlook two truths taught here; first 
that the fall came through the man and not through the 
woman, and second that redemption came through the in- 
strumentality of the woman. ‘Through man came death ; 
through the woman is to come life. In taking upon Himself 
our humanity whereby He might effect our deliverance, it 
must be the seed of the woman, who is the expression of 
feebleness and dependence, and not that of man who re- 
presented natural headship or power. 


To fulfill this promise, Jesus must not, therefore, be be- 
gotten by any man. He must be born of virgin. This is 
precisely what was prophesied later, (Isa. 7:14), and what 
the New Testament teaches to have been true of Jesus. 


THE STORY OF THE FALL 59 


(Lu. 1:26-35). And this is a very vital matter from every 
possible standpoint. It is necessary to the Deity of Jesus. 
For, if He was born of a human father, He was then like all 
the rest of us—full of weakness and sin and could not lay any 
claim to Deity. In that case He would have had an even start 
in life with all of the rest of us. The most that could be 
said of Him, then, would be that He was a great hero, whom 
we would do well to imitate. But we could not trust Him to 
save us. If, however, He was begotten of the Holy Spirit, he 
was very different from us because He had in Him the seeds 
of God. Here is His essential Deity and it is this possession 
of Deity that makes Him able to overthrow satan and save 
us. 


Just this makes it necessary for us to cling to the doctrine 
of the virgin birth of our Savior. Just this leads all, who 
try to destroy confidence in His Deity, to deny the doctrine 
of the virgin birth. ‘The two are inseparable, and both stand 
or fall together. If the virgin birth be not true, Jesus is not 
Very God, and salvation becomes a matter of self-recovery in 
human works and not of rescue through a deliverer from 
above. If on the other hand He was born of a woman and 
begotten of God without a human father as the scriptures 
teach (and I have no question that He was), then Eve be- 
came the mother, not only of all living, in the sense that she 
was the mother of the human race, but, through being the 
mother of Jesus, she became the mother of all those who 
through faith in Him shall possess eternal life. 

At this point we find an incident of great significance. 
Upon hearing the promise of God that the woman’s seed 
should destroy the serpent, Adam renamed his wife, calling 
her Eve, because she was to be the mother of all living. (Ch. 
3:20). He had quickly anticipated the meaning of that 
promise and had begun to rejoice in the fact that his spouse 
was to be the mother of all those who should finally possess 
spiritual and eternal life. As a poor sinner, his faith saw 
divine mercy come down, although there was nothing in Him 
to draw it except his misery which appealed to the divine 
love. Bowing in silent submission to the sentence of death, 


60 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 





his lips speak of the grace which He sees inclosed in that 
sentence. How beautifully do we see manifested in Adam a 
faith which, while it left him still a poor sinner, except that 
he would yet be justified, not by his own works, but by the 
free grace of God which would be manifested in the Seed of 
the woman. ‘Their deliverance is not so much a restoration 
as a new creation. ‘The seed of the woman is to be a second 
Man—another and last Adam. He is to be a new head of 


a new race who are to be the “Sons of God” and who are to | 


be born “not of blood (naturally) nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13). 


33. Their Covering of Skins. This brings us to the con- 


sideration of God’s act of providing for their immediate needs © 


—ot removing the shame of their nakedness. He provided 
them with coats of skins for a covering. The Scriptures say 
“Unto Adam also and to his wife, did Jehovah God make 
coats of skin and clothed them” (Ch.3:21). It is especially 
noticeable that “also” ties this act on to what has preceded. 
Just a little while ago God had been pronouncing upon them 
the fearful consequences of their sin, showing how it affected, 
not only themselves, but their posterity and even the physical 
universe. He had also made them a promise of redemption 


through Christ the Seed of the woman. But they had present — 


needs. Their sin had brought them consciousnes of their 
shame. They had tried with their own hands to remedy the 


situation, but found themselves still naked. God’s mercy — 


did not leave them in this helpless plight. He made them 
clothes of the skins of animals ,and covered them so that 
without fear or shame, they could appear in His holy pres- 
ence. 


And why this universal longing for clothing on the part of 
human beings. Adam and Eve recognized their need of it 
and God provided it. Strange to say, man is the only crea- 
ture that needs to be artificially clothed (or covered). All 
other animal life produces its own clothing from within—out 
of its own nature. Perhaps Adam and Eve were so clothed 
before the fall. Through the fall they probably lost their 


EE  — 


THE STORY OF THE FALL 61 





halo or celestial clothing from within and hence they found 
themselves naked. On the mount of Transfiguration Jesus 
seems to have been clothed with a halo from within Himself 
and the ultimate glory of the redeemed may issue in a new 
clothing from within when they have the glorified bodies of 
the resurrection. This may be the method of fulfilling that 
wonderful promise to the wife of the Lamb. “It was given 
unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright 
and pure; for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints” 
(Rev. 19:8): 


It is also interesting to know that in the Old Testament, 
the word for atonement means “to cover up.” Hence Adam 
and his wife in seeking to find covering were seeking “atone- 
ment.” And when God provided them with a covering He 
was providing an “atonement’—an expiation or putting away 
of sin. In the fig-leaf aprons they had employed all of their 
resources and had accomplished nothing but to demonstrate 
their helplessness. But their helplessness made an_ occasion 
for learning the tender mercy of God. God both made and 
applied to these sinners the covering or atonement which they 
needed. So it will ever be, God and not ourselves must pro- 
vide our atonement. He must also apply it and make it ef- 
fective in each case. He only can put upon us this great 
blessing. 


This is all the more striking when considered in the light 
of the way in which the provision was made. In it we have 
a figure or type of the righteousness which God has for us 
in Christ. It fully shows forth the sacrificial element. It 
required the sacrifice of innocent animals before the coats 
could be made and their covering is, therefore, based upon 
blood. In this God maintained the sentence of death and at 
the same time removed man’s shame and the consequences 
of his sin. This is the first time that innocent blood was shed 
in order to provide a covering for a sinner. It is the first in- 
stance where the death of another was substituted for that of 
a sinner and was the means of preparing the sinner to stand 
before God. It is a type or illustration of the substitution- 


62 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


ary death of Jesus for the lost and of how, by the shedding 
of His blood, we are prepared to appear in peace before God. 


Now, as has been indicated, “also” links this beautiful type 
to the promise of deliverance through the seed of the woman. 
He, who is to be the Redeemer, is to be the slain one, who 
is substituted for our atonement. One who is both human 
and divine is to suffer for us and we are to be covered from 
Him. We are to be clothed in the Divine-human righteous- 
ness, which was wrought out through the incarnation of 
Jesus Christ. There are three forms of righteousness de- 
scribed in the Scriptures: (1) Divine Righteousness, (2) Hu- 
man righteousness as in Adam before the Fall, (3) Divine- 
human righteousness in Christ Jesus. This last is called “a 
righteousness of ,God” and is the theme of the book of Ro- 
mans. Legalists in attempting to rescue themselves through 
keeping the law, know nothing of this Divine-human right- 
eousness which became ours through Christ’s death on the 
cross. It is far better than that which Adam had before the 
fall, or that which we would have, if we could attain to per- 
fect morality in the law. These could be human only while 
there is complete Divine and human righteousness combined. 
Here is where we gain more in redemption than Adam lost 
in the fall. His righteousness could be destroyed. Ours 
being also divine as well as human, can not. In glory our 
bodies will also have been redeemed and we will be like Jesus 
“body, soul and spirit”. Then we will be clothed from within 
like He was on the “Holy Mount” (Mk. 9:2-8, Lu. 9:29). 


Moreover, this clothing of these sinners furnishes a fitting 
climax of a series of matters that are always present in our 
salvation in Christ. First, God made a promise of life through 
the seed of the woman, who was to overcome the work of 
satan. Second, Adam seems to have accepted that promise 
and by faith to have rejoiced in it. For as soon as the prom- 
ise came, he changed the name of his wife to Eve because 
she was to be “the mother of all living.” In this he grasped 
the idea of God’s redemption through Christ and changed 
her name because she was not merely the mother of all the 


THE STORY OF THE FALL 63 





descendants of Adam, but, in Christ her Seed, was also the 
mother of all those who in Christ should possess eternal 
life. Third, there follows the covering with the skins which 
they perhaps took from the first animals ever slain. In all 
this we have in regular order: (1) The promise of God. 
(2) Man’s acceptance of it by faith. (3) The response of God 
in clothing him which always follows upon man’s acceptance 
of God’’s promise of life in Jesus. 


Several other matters should also be noted concerning this 
incident. First of all, there was covering provided for both 
Adam and Eve. That is to say that the provision was suf- 
ficient for the whole of the then existing race. In this we 
find a fit parallel to the atoning work of Christ, who made a 
propitiation for the “sins of the whole world” (I Jno. 2:2). 
There is ample salvation for all men. 


In the next place, let us remember that this provision was 
made in the face of the fact that Adam and Eve had already 
done all they could to cover themselves. God discarded what 
they had prepared and made other garments satisfactory to 
Himself. For by hiding from God they had confessed that 
their aprons of fig leaves were not even satisfactory to them, 
sinful as they were. They certainly would not, then, please 
a Holy God. 

In all this we see the real difference between genuine 
Christianity and mere human religion; between that salva- 
tion wrought out of God and the failure wrought out by 
human works. Christianity has for its foundation the fact 
that one has been clothed upon, while human form of religion 
rests upon the sense of the lack of being clothed—the sense 
of nakedness. What a Christian does in the way of religion 
or good works is all because he is perfectly clothed upon by 
the Lord, while what a mere religionist does is all in the 
effort and hope that he may be clothed. But God discarded 
Adam’s apron of fig-leaves. It could not screen him from 
the eyes of God It was ineffectual because man and not 
God had provided for it. It was as a righteousness rested 
upon the works of sin-stained hands. This is a warning to 


64 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


all those who are resting their hope of eternal life upon their 
own righteouness instead of in the grace of God and in the 
righteousness He offers us in Christ Jesus. 


But the coats provided by Jehovah were perfect and those 
who were clothed in them were perfectly clothed. ‘I‘hese 
coats were founded on blood even as God’s righteousness 
is now set forth in the cross of Christ. After Adam stood 
clothed in this coat of skins he could no longer say “I was 
naked and afraid”. Nor was there any further occasion for 
him to hide himself from God. So also the sinner may feel 
perfectly at rest when, by faith, he knows that he is clothed 
upon by the righteousness of God. Here is the joy and com- 
fort of our hearts. They may be at perfect rest, knowing 
that, when we appear before God, we are to be clad in a robe 
which He Himself has provided. This again admonishes all 
of us not to rest upon our own deeds, seeing that God will 
not accept anything short of the perfection which He alone 
can supply. 


34. The Altar of Justice and Mercy. In the next and last 
place, we must give attention to the Divine provision of 
mercy which is seen here. Fallen man must not be allowed 
to eat of the fruit of the tree of life. For to eat of it in his 
fallen state, would bring upon him endless wretchedness. It 
would mean to confirm him to live forever in his fallen con- 
dition. It would remove from him the possibility of redemp- 
tion and would put him out of reach of the glory of the 
resurrection. In putting him out of the garden, therefore, 
God was showing Him great mercy. It was not an act of 
punishment for sin, but an act of protection from eternal 
harm. It left open an opportunity for him to be redeemed 
from the ruin of sin that had come upon him. And besides 
all this, it put him out in a world that, everywhere, exhibited 
the results of his sin and showed him the need of Divine 
assistance. It thereby made him the more easily accept God’s 
way of life. 

Now as soon as they were put out, God set up at the east 
side of the garden, an altar of justice and mercy. The cher- 





THE STORY OF THE FALL 65 


ubim and fiery presence (chapter 3:24) are the same as those 
which He later instructed Moses to use in connection with 
the altar of mercy and grace on the ark of the covenant in 
the Tabernacle oe 25: 18-22). There the two cherubim 
were made one on either end of the mercy seat, facing each 
other and made of one piece with the mercy seat itself. It was 
the place where God met Moses to make known His will— 
the place where He met and blessed sinners who would ap- 
proach Him through the blood of sacrifice made for sin. 


It would be difficult to separate these several parts. They 
are all of one piece so that to destroy one is also to destroy 
the other. It is the meeting of mercy and justice. Here 
“Truth and mercy must meet together” and “righteousness 
and peace kiss each other” (Psa. 85:10). It is a promise by 
which God can be both just and the justifier of those who 
trust in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). Probably the cherubim are sym- 
bols of justice which always scrutinizes mercy to see that it 
does not violate God’s justice. There can be no mercy ex- 
tended until God is first declared just in justifying the sinner. 
The offering demanded here at the gate of the garden was 
a sin offering. It had to be burned on the outside of the 
garden and its blood (poured out life) placed upon the mercy 
seat to make atonement for sin. This blood quenched the 
fire-consuming wrath of God and the cherubim of justice gaze 
forever upon that sacrificial life or blood poured out for sin 
and not upon the sinner. It opens up the way to the tree 
of life by way of justification through judgment unto death. 


It was here, then, that all offerings for sin were to be pre- 
sented and where men were approvingly accepted or were 
rejected by the Lord. This was the scene of the sacrifices 
of Cain and Abel who came to God with their offerings. Nor 
did God drive Cain away until He had remonstrated with him 
and tried to induce him to offer a sacrifice that He could 
accept. In this He showed that He desired to show mercy 
and not to destroy. His appeal was for Cain to accept the 
divine condition so that He could justify him and at the same 
time maintain His own justice and honor by acting in 
harmony with His word. 


66 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


The flaming sword was not, therefore, for the purpose of 
shutting up the way of the tree of life, to prevent men from 
coming to it, but to open up to sinful man a merciful way 
back to that tree. The proper translation of the thought is 
that of Jamison, Fausset and Brown—that God dwelt there 
“to keep open the way of the tree of life”. True, Adam had 
been cut off from eating the fruit of this blessed tree, but 
now there was opened up a way by which he might come 
back to it. through the intervention of mercy. He could come 
back by the mercy seat covered with sacrifice for sin and par-.. 
take of this tree and live forever in a justified and forgiven 
state instead of in a sinful state. Here is the blessed hope 
of every sinner in coming to God in Christ. God imparts to 
us the Divine-human righteousness of Jesus and we are for- 
ever accepted by Him. 


This, then, is the chief point of it all, that as soon as man 
had sinned,. grace intervened to save him. First, there was 
a promise of a redeemer who would destroy the works of the 
devil. Second, there was an acceptance on the part of man 
who by the faith caught a glimpse of that Redeemer. Third, there 
was provided clothing for them that symbolized the right- 
eousness of Christ. Fourth, there was erected a mercy seat 
to show them how they might approach God and be saved. 
They had been shut off from the tree of life by the old way, 
but now they had access to it by “a new and living way” 
(Heb. 10:20). This place at the east side of the garden con- 
tinued to the time of the flood to be the place where men 
came with their sacrifices to worship God and where they 
received permission to partake of the fruit of the tree of life 
and live forever, not with the curse, but with the blessing of God 
resting upon them. And all this was provided on the same 
day that man sinned. There has, therefore, never been a 
single day since man first sinned that there has not been 
open to him a way of justification and forgiveness and eternal 
life. 


35. Some Names of God. At this point it will be well for — 
us to concern ourselves a little further with the different 





THE STORY OF THE FALL 67 


names of God found in this and the former chapters and to 
learn something of their bearing upon the subject of our 
study. In the first chapter we find the name of God which 
means in its simplest form, a great strong being. But in 
the second chapter where the creation of man is especially 
described and in chapter three where the need and plan of 
redemption begin to be revealed there is a change to Jehovah God. 
But the name Jehovah does not occur until man appears 
upon the scene. Now, this name denotes a self-existing God, 
who reveals Himself as Redeemer. It suggests that He was 
self-sufficient, uncaused and eternal. It furthermore de- 
scribes Him as one who reveals Himself to intelligent crea- 
tures and especially reveals Himself in the capacity of Savior 
or Redeemer. It is the Old Testament name for God when 
He is thought of or acts in the way similar to what Jesus 
does for us in our redemption. Under this name, therefore, 
He made with them His covenants of mercy and faithfully 
kept them. ‘This is the name He assumes when He is act- 
ing in relation with man, whether as Creator, Redeemer or Judge. 
It is under this name that man is created and given his dominion 
over the physical universe. 


This suggests that in the very creation of man there was 
a redemptive purpose. Redemption was not an after thought 
with God but a deliberate plan of creation. The fall had been 
anticipated and we were chosen in Christ “before the founda- 
tion of the world” (Eph. 1:4). This is the highest possible 
view and explanation of the universe and of man. Such an 
explanation alone can justify in our minds God’s permission 
of sin and sorrow in the world. With such an understanding 
we can as previously indicated, consider the creation of the 
world as the creation of a stage of action upon which God 
might make a display of His redeeming love and grace. This 
is putting the cross in the center and regarding it as the 
very framework of all creation. It is making redemption a 
deliberative plan and purpose on the part of God and not 
an accident resulting from an unexpected incident in the life 
of man. 


68 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


Moreover, it was under this name, Jehovah (redeemer) that 
God came to the fallen pair in the garden as they hid them- 
selves in the trees. Under this name He there set up judge- 
ment and pronounced the curse upon the serpent and also 
offered the mercy and made the promises discussed in this 
chapter. Here then, we find that it was in His redeeming 
capacity that God created man; that He began to deal with 
him after he had sinned; that He cursed man’s enemy, the 
serpent; that He made His promises and provisions after 
the fall and curse. It is just as in and through Jesus the Savior 
that satan our great enemy is to be finally judged and de- 
stroyed and we are to be saved. All of God’s dealings with 
man are, therefore, in connection with His redemptive nature 
and plan. 


Nor is it difficult to show that this use of His name is 
consistently adhered to in all the Scriptures. A few illustra- 
tions will suffice. “And they that went in, went in male 
and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him; and 
Jehovah shut him in” (Gen. 7:16). Here God, the one of 
all power, was going to destroy the world, but Jehovah the 
Redeemer took care of and sealed up in safety Noah whom 
He was able to save from the power and destruction of the 
flood. “That all the earth may know that there is a God 
in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that Jehovah 
saveth: (I Sam. 17:46-47). All the earth was to recognize 
God, the one of power and might, but Israel was to recog- 
nize Him as Jehovah, the Savior. “Jehosaphat cried out. 
Jehovah helped him and God moved them to depart from 
him” (II Chron. 18:31). Jehovah, the Savior, took care of 
his poor erring servant, while God acted upon the hearts of 
the Syrian enemies. In Jeremiah 31:31-34 we have an illus- 
tration of Jehovah making covenants with His prophet. 
Here He makes what He calls the New Covenant. It is an 
unconditional covenant, Jehovah on His own account under- 
taking to carry out all the promises stated in it. In the New 
Testament the New Covenant is shown to be based upon 
the saving blood of Jesus. So that here again Jehovah is 


THE STORY OF THE FALL 69 


the name referring to God in His redeeming capacity and 
especially through His death and suffering. 

Here it will be well for the reader to pause and see how 
fully we have now been admitted into the great redemptive 
plan of God. We should make sure that we have received 
the blessing which as Redeemer He seems so ready to grant 
us. We should ask ourselves whether we are trusting Jesus 
the Seed of the woman who came to overthrow the devil. 
Do we consciously and in faith accept the cover of right- 
eousness which He wrought out through His death and offers 
to us? Have we gone by the altar of mercy which He has 
provided and presented to God the sacrifice of Jesus as our 
plea? Have we gone in through the New and living way 
which He opened up for us and thereby gained access to the 
blessings of the tree of life (Rev. 2:7)? 


CHAPTER V. 
The Story of Cain and Abel 


Questions and Themes for Study. (1) What did Cain and Abel 
each offer to God? 4:1-5. (2) What are the facts and lessons of the 
conference between Cain and Abel and between Cain and God? 4:6-15. 
(3) What elements of civilzation did Cain’s descendants develop? 
4:16-22. (4) What description is given of a religious life and with 
what result was it lived? 5:21-24. (5) What truths are taught in 
the genealogies of Cain and of Seth (4:16-5:32)? Study especially 
the meanng of each name. 


In these stories we come to a second stage in these progressive 
types. We take up a new point of view, which furnishes a sort 
of climax to the former foregleams of the Messiah and at the 
same time opens up the way for the discussion of the flood which 
is to come later. 


36. First Sons of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are now 
fallen and are outside of the garden surrounded by all the phys- 
ical evidences of the curse. ‘There rests upon them the know- 
ledge that their bodies must return to the dust out of which they 
were formed. They are trying to fulfill their commission to sub- 
due the earth and are suffering the burdens of that toil which 
their sin had brought upon them. The ground was no longer 
voluntarily yielding to them a bounteous support, but had begun 
to yield thorns and thistles, thereby making it necessary for them 
to earn their bread by the sweat of their faces. Here were also 
born unto them their children, concerning two of whom we are 
to study in this chapter. Nothing is told us of their childhood and 
youth. Nothing is given us as to their dispositions or service ex- 
cept the mere statement as to the nature of their ‘occupations. 
They had been reared in the well-ordered religious home of Adam 
who had received the promise of the Messiah and had been clothed 
upon by the symbolical righteousness of God in Christ. They 
had been taught how to worship and had determined to live re- 


THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL 71 





ligious lives. Our story is particularly concerned with their 
worship and its significance. 


37. Two Lives Contrasted. They furnished us with a story 
of two lives contrasted with one another. The spirit and con- 
duct which are revealed in these two lives are seen everywhere, 
whether in many individuals or in nations. It is the beginning 
of the fulfilment of the divine prophecy concerning the enmity 
between the seed of the woman and the séed of the serpent. It 
is the story of every generation and of all lands from then until 
now. For in every generation the two principles involved have 
their representatives among men and the conflicts and victories 
are in principle constantly repeated. This makes the story of 
the conduct of these two first-born of Adam of great interest 
and value to all the future. 


38. The Story Related to Jesus. Above all, the story con- 
cerns Him whom in the fullest sense we may call “The Seed of 
the woman.” ‘The death of Abel is a matter of deep perplexity 
and can be understood only in the light of the conflict between 
the seed of satan and of the woman. ‘The serpent is to bruise 
the heel of her seed before her seed is to bruise his head. This 
applies to Christ as the conqueror of man’s foe. In Abel’s 
death we have a type of the death of Christ—His crucifixion. 


He died at the hand of His brethren and His blood speaks bet- ~~ 


ter things than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24). In Cain there 
_is a picture of the Jews, Christ’s brethren after the flesh by whose 
hand He died. He like they ignored the breach that sin had 
caused between man and his creator. Like him the Pharisees 
were self-righteous legalists who were ignorant of God and 
His grace. They went about to establish their own right- 
eousness and did not submit themselves to the righteousness of 
God (Rom. 10:3). So also the self-righteous heart of Cain 
resented the testimony of man’s guilt and of God’s provision for 
it which was seen in God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering. God 
graciously remonstrates with Cain as He did with the Jews. But 
Abel is slain just as was Jesus, and Cain like the Jews went out 
to be forever a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth. Here is 


72 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


in many ways the saddest story of all the history of the Hebrew 
race. They are homeless and scattered among other people for 
the most part to be hated by them. 


Taking another and more general view of the lessons here sug- 
gested, it may be said concerning them that they represent two 
types of religious ideas or ideals that are everywhere in the Scrip- 
ture shown in contrast. ‘They set forth, for all time, the fun- 
damental elements of true and false religion and point out the 
attitude of God toward each system. They furnished us with 
a fair example of a religious man of the world and of a genuine 
man of faith. 


39. Nature and Environment the Same. We must be care- 
ful not to think that the difference was one of nature or environ- 
ment. ‘They each ‘had the same fallen nature. ‘They were the 
sons of fallen Adam and like him both were depraved and lost 
in sin. They had the same parents and therefore were alike 
in nature. They were both a part of the corrupt stream of ruined 
and guilty humanity that emanated from Adam who had lost 
his innocence and in them “there was no difference.” ‘Then too, 
they were reared in the same home and were the recipients of 
the same parental instruction and care. Moreover, they were 
surrounded by the same environment. ‘Their attitude toward 
God and His attitude toward them and their sacrifices—accept- 
ing one and rejecting the other—was not based upon their nature 
or because one had been influenced by a better environment than 
the other. 


40. Both Were Religious. It should also be said that it 
was not because Cain was not truly religous that he was rejected. 
Nor was it because Abel was religious that God accepted him and 
his sacrifice. So far as there is any hint in the Scripture nar- 
rative they were both alike of a deeply religious spirit. If merely 
being religious would satisfy God, it would be as safe to be a 
Mohammedan as Christian. Moreover the question of sincerity 
was not involved. Both of them knew exactly where to come to 
worship—at the east side of the garden where God had erected 
the altar of mercy. And both of them so far as there is any 


THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL 73 


suggestion in the Scripture were perfectly sincere in their wor- 
ship—both desiring to receive the divine approbation. Here then 
is abundant warning to those who think that it matters nothing 
about our service to God just so we are sincere. This story 
proclaims aloud the fact that our sincerity is not the basis upon 
which God receives and blesses us. We must not only be con- 
scientious in our worship, but must worship according to God’s 
way and will. 


41. Sacrifices Differed. What then made the great dif- 
ference in these men? It was not in them or their nature or 
their sincerity. There was just one point of difference. It 
was in their sacrifice. One of them “brought of the fruit of 
the ground” (chapter 4:3), while the other “brought of the 
 firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof” (chapter 4:4). The 
writer of the book of Hebrews says of them “By faith Abel 
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which 
he obtained witness that he was righteous, God bearing witness 
to his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh’ (Heb. 11:4). 
Here we see that it was not a question of the men but of their 
sacrifices. In the matter of our worship, then, it is not the one 
who makes the offering but the thing offered that is of first 
importance. Abel made “a more excellent sacrifice’ and God 
bore “witness to his gifts’. It is just this that indicates the 
sinners’s standing before God. He must bring a sacrifice that 
will be acceptable to God before he himself can be accepted. 


42. Cain’s Offering. Since, then, this is of such importance, 
let us inquire into the difference in their sacrifices. Cain brought 
of “the fruit of the ground”, while Abel brought of “‘the first- 
lings of his flock and of the fat thereof”. Here is a difference 
of the very greatest importance. The offering of Cain was the 
product on fruit of a sin-cursed earth. And what is worse is 
was the result of the labor of sinful human hands.~ Being a 
sinner Cain rested under the penalty of death. Death there- 
fore, stood between him and God, but his offering made no rec- 
ognition of this fact. He did not offer a sacrifice that would 
represent the giving of a life instead of his own. There was no 


74. GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 





blood to cover and cleanse away his sin. Nor was there any- 
thing to indicate that he had any sense of the necessity of some 
life being given up that he might have a way of approach to God. 
He is an illustration of the unpardoned sinner coming into the 
| presence of God with nothing to commend him except his own 
' works. He shows how all such shall forever be rejected. - It is 
not works of good, but death that is required. Jesus went about 
doing good, but that did not save and would not have saved, 
if he had lived on and kept it up until now and forever. He 
had to die to save. Death is the divine imperative. ‘Without 
the shedding of blood there is no remission.” 


43. Abel’s Offering. On the other hand, Abel did not 
bring the labor of his own hands which sin had necessitated and 
stained, but the substitute of a stainless offering. He recognized 
that he was a sinner and that no work of his own would deliver 
him from death and judgment and secure for him life and 
blessing. He, therefore, brought as his offering a firstling of 
the flock, ever afterward used as a representative of Him who 
was the ‘first-born among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). It 
was an innocent victim which was slain in sacrifice. And how 
did he make this sacrifice of blood? In the Scripture already 
quoted it is said “By faith Abel made a more excellent sacrifice”. 
It was “by faith’ that he was enabled to enter into the truth 
that a sinner could place the death of another between himself 
and the consequence of his sins and that thereby he might escape 
death. ‘By faith’ he saw that by offering a spotless victim to 
God (and the fat indicated its good condition) he could meet 
both the claims of a holy God, and his own needs as a guilty 
sinner. Such a faith, making such a sacrifice points to a belief 
in the cross and illustrates its power as being alone sufficient to 
satisfy the needs of a sinner and to glorify God. 


44, Abel’s Faith Sees Jesus. In this “more excellent sacri- 
ficé” Abel came to a full understanding of God’s view of sin and 
salvation.. He accepted his own rightful place as a sinner and 
also consented for God to assume His proper position as Savior 
and do His saving work. As a convicted sinner he felt that 


THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL 75 


death and judgment were before him as the just rewards for 
his sins and looked to a suffering and dying Savior to deliver 
him. As a believer he saw Christ as God’s ransom on the 
cross. He saw the sacrifice of that cross remove from him 
the prospect of death and of judgment and put in their place 


life and glory eternal. Such a faith will never attempt to 
cover up or set aside the truth about one’s own depraved and 
condemned condition. It will cause one to confess himself 


worthy of death and at the same time will trust in a substitute 
for deliverance. 


But Christ-is the only real and perfect and divinely accept- 
able substitute. His death comes in between man and his sins 
and the holiness of God. He is substituted as a ransom for 
the sinner and bears all the suffering and death deserved by the 
sinner. He can, therefore, become his surety against the con- 
sequences of his sins. Faith sees in Jesus’ death the perfect 
sacrifice for sin and accepts from God a peace and joy which 
the world can neither give nor take away. Such a faith puts 
us in the immediate possession of the blessings and fellowship 
of God. Paul puts it “Therefore being justified by faith, we 
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). 
Abel’s was such a faith that it saw in Christ his offering and 
presented Him to God as such. And all those who still shelter 
under the atoning death of that great Victim will have God to 
attest His value on their behalf by the putting away of their 
sins and by the establishment of their peace with God. 


45. Offering and Offerer One Before God. We should 
not overlook the fact that it was not primarily Abel, but his 
offering, that God accepted. ‘The Scripture says “God testified 
of his gifts” and that it was from his offering that he obtained 
the witness that he was righteous. This is a matter of vast 
significance. From it we learn that God identified Abel with 
the offering he brought. It is of importance in that it teaches 
us that it is not the person of the man who makes the offering 
that is of supreme consequence, but the character of the offer- 
ing that he brings. No matter how sinful the man, we may 
have assurance, if we keep steadily in mind the fact that it 


76 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


was not Abel but his sacrifice to which God bore testimony 
and that he was accepted because of it. This is a most prec- 
ious teaching—we are put on a par with our offering. If it 
is accepted of God, we are also accepted with it. Here is the 
sinner’s hope. He comes to God and presents Jesus as his 
sacrifice and pleads for the favor of God and is accepted along 
with Jesus. We are then not to look inward to see if we are 
acceptable to God, but we are to behold Christ—how accept- 
able He is—and be sure that we rest our hopes wholly upon 
Him. In coming to God in His name we are completely iden- 
tified with Him and our destiny is therefore linked up with 
His. We are bound up in the same bundle of life with Christ 
and hope and boast in Him all the day long. Our future and 
His are to be the same. No question can be raised against 
the very weakest believer unless it is also first raised against 
Jesus, the offering upon which the believer rests. God has 
over and over again borne witness to Jesus our gift that He 
is satisfactory and by presenting Him as our claim we may 
have the witness that in Him we are righteous. Our confi- 
dence then is not in ourselves, but in Jesus who has done all 
things for us and has become all things to us. ‘This is the 
basis of all our joy and hope, that as long as God is pleased 
with Christ we are safe and are truly “accepted in the Be- 
loved’? (Eph. 1:6). 


46. Cain’s Anger and Rejection. ‘I‘here is another word 
about Cain here. He became angry (apparently with God) 
because his sacrifice was not accepted. This spirit compares — 
well with what the New Testament calls the sinner’s “enmity to 
God” (Rom. 8:7). He contended for his own way as against 
God’s way. He was unwilling to be put in the attitude of 
confessing himself to be a sinner, but God was loath to let 
Cain go and, therefore, came down and reasoned with him— 
probably better say He plead with him. He urged him say- 
ing “If thou doest well (or as the Septuagint correctly reads — 
‘If thou offer correctly’) shalt thou not be accepted?” And 
again he said “If thou doest not well sin lieth at the door” 
(chapter 4:7). Here God is both warning him and making a 


THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL 77 


On 


plea to him. The phase “sin lieth at the door’ means “a sin 


offering is near at hand.” God then, is pointing out to Cain 
that there is available to him an offering which will be accepted 
and is urging him yet to make such offering. Putting it in order 
words, God yearned over Cain desiring to receive him and re- 
fused to cast him off until after He had done all He could to 
induce him to accede to the divine will and present an offering 
with which he himself could be received. When Cain stead- 


fastly refused to give heed to the word of God he was cast off 
from His presence. 


In all this God shows how He will never finally reject 
a sinner until that sinner knowingly and wilfully refuses God’s 
way. There is still open to him an approach to the favor of 
God, if he has not refused to accept Jesus the only sacrifice 
acceptable to God and offer Him as his sin offering. It also 
shows that when He utterly fails to get a man to accept the 
divine way He casts that man off forever. God will allow no 
substitutes. We must accept His plan or none. He has pro- 
vided in Jesus a sin offering that is sufficient for all. “But 
there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby 
we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12). So then, it is an alterna- 


tive we cannot escape—trust Jesus or be lost. “For if we 


sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the 
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain 
fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire 


which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb. 10:26-7). More- 


over, this plan as here illustrated provides not only a way of 
salvation, but also for an appeal to the unsaved. It first amply 


provides for the needs of all and then diligently seeeks to 


save all. For Jesus “came to seek and to save that which 


was lost” (Lu. 19:10). 


47. Cain Persecutes Abel. Here we should notice how 
these two religionists bore themselves toward each other. As 
soon as Cain refused to meet God’s condition of salvation and 
was rejected he began to manifest the corrupt fruit of his 
sinful nature. Although Abel had had nothing to do with 
rejection, Cain began to persecute him and finally murdered 
him. In this persecution of a worshiper he manifested the 


78 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


spirit and fruit of all false religion. That justification and 
peace with God which is based upon faith in a sacrifice at- — 
tributes all merit to God and to Jesus the Savior and there- — 
fore declares man to be without any merit whatsoever. It — 
recognizes that our salvation is both wrought out and applied — 
by the hand of God. Just this is what Cain resented. Just 
this was the offense for which he slew his brother. It is the 
, offense of the cross then and always (I Cor. 1:23; Gal 5:11). © 


These first recorded instances of human worship and the con- 
sequent attitude of Cain toward Abel manifest the same ele- 
ments that always and everywhere show themselves in religions. 
From that day forward false religionists have always perse- — 
cuted the true. And in proportion as a religious system is false, 
in that proportion will its devotees manifest hatred and in- ~ 
tolerance toward those of other religions. Some religionists 
such as the Mohammedans pray for their god to destroy all 
who do not accept their religion. Even among Christians 
those who have in their worship most of human works and most 
of worldly formality are most apt to hate others who dis- 
agree with them and to be disregardful of their feelings. On 
the other hand the true Christian spirit is tolerant of all. The 
New ‘Testament gives us positive instructions not to persecute 
others. Ours is a duty to love and pity and to try to assist 
others to the better way. From this point of view one could 
do some valuable study in the field of comparative religions. — 
We could raise such questions as what religions have produced 
a people prone to persecute others? Or what sects of Christ- 
ianity have done most to injure others who did not agree with 
them. We could inquire into the nature of the false elements 
of the systems that have led to such persecutions. Just here it is” 
important to remember that God set a mark on Cain and in-| 
dicated that He would punish any who harmed him. God will 
not put in our hands the punishment of those who refuse His 
way of salvation. Vengeance belongs to God and we must 
not punish those who refuse to be religious. | 


48. Cain and This Present World. But Cain showed another 
result of false worship. After killing his brother and hearing 


= — SS a ee 


aw + 


ee 







THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL 79 


the judgement of God pronounced upon him, he went out with 
his family from the presence of Jehovah. In reality he was 
a vagabond in the earth with the Divine displeasure resting 
upon him. But he set about trying to make the cursed and 
fallen earth a satisfactory place in which to live. He went 
out of the presence of God to lose himself in the world and its 
pursuits. He proposed to decorate this world and in his own 
sight to become respectable. Having rejected God’s way of 
cleansing he undertook to improve man as he was. But it 
is the progress of a race away from God. ‘They possess 
themselves of the earth and prosper in the land of vagabond- 
age. But the race gets no better. Indeed it gets constantly 
worse and ends with Lamech whose name speaks of human 
strength and in’ whom self-will and impenitent abuse of God’s 
long-suffering reach their height. He was a polygamist and 
a would-be-murderer and showed that in such a race the latter 
end is worse than the first. 


Just here lies the fundamental difference in the plan of re- 
demption which God had now begun to reveal to men and 
the religious systems which men have made. God's plan is 
for man to be cleansed and renewed in heart and life while 
man aims at nothing but the cultivation of what there is in 
man. God would lay new foundations of character and life, 
while man merely tries to build upon what is already there. 
One is a salvation by grace and regeneration. The other 
seeks to have by culture and the arts of civilization. One 
links us up with God and eternity. The other would try to so 
‘adorn and beautify this world and so fill it with pleasure and 
comforts that men would become satisfied to live in separation 
from God. One seeks and finds a refuge in God Himself, 
the other builds a city on earth. Here is the secret of the 
great civilizations that have been erected by certain great heath- 
en and wicked people. It was the result of their highest thought 
and effort. Nor is it strange that Cain overlooked the fact 
that the earth he had set about to enjoy was under the curse 
of God and especially that it was cursed with the innocent 
blood of his brother. And, if any of us would set our affec- 


80 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


tions upon this world, let us remember that it is forever stained 
by the blood of Jesus which was spilled upon it by wicked 
and murderous hands. And, moreover, the reason they slew 
Him was the same as that for which Cain slew his brother— 
because of religious hatred and jealousy. Our faith should 
look beyond all the glitter and glory of this world which will 
be utterly destroyed, and see the cross of Christ. We must 
not live just for this life, but must set our affections on things 
above where Christ is and live in expectancy of the great life 
beyond (Col. 3:1-2). 


This is a vital difference in the religion of this world and 
its devotees and that of faith. The former does not look be- 
yond this life. But the man of faith in Christ sees in God 
the dispenser of a, more real and genuine life than this. He 
sees in Him the Giver of a life that is beyond the power of 
being either forfeited or lost. He sees in Christ a risen one 
who is victorious over all that could in any way harm us or 
be against us. By His death Jesus abolished death for us 
and by His resurrection He has introduced us into the sphere 
into which He has risen. He is no longer where satan can 
touch Him and we also look for a life beyond his power. 


49. The Resurrected Life. Here let us see whether these 
stories furnish us with any evidence of the resurrection and of 
this true view of the religious life of faith. Abel has been slain 
and only Cain and his family survive. Is that which is of God 
when downtrodden made extinct upon the earth? Or will it 
rise again? Seth was born unto Adam and was so named be- 
cause God had appointed him instead of Abel whom Cain slew 
(Gen. 4:25). In him, therefore, we have the resurrection of the 
spirit and nature of Abel and through him the perpetuation of the 
worship for which he died. As set forth above Abel represents 
the sacrifice of Christ. But Seth illustrates the risen Christ life. 


Abel had died and Cain lived and flourished and though: 
separated from God was not permitted to be killed. This pros- 
perity continued to the seventh generation, ending in Lamech 
whose name meant human strength and in all of them we see how 


THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL 81 





“that which is born of the flesh is flesh” (Jno. 3:6). But now 
we come to a new beginning. For other and different fruit we 
find another tree. Seth is appointed of God as a seed “in the 
place of Abel whom Cain slew.” This is a new beginning for 
Abel. It is the resurrection principle. There was born unto 
Seth Enos, and from that time “men began to call upon the name 
of the Lord” (chapter 4:26). The name Enos means “frail” and 
shows again the spirit of those who “worship God in the Spirit 
and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” 
(Phil. 3:3). Here is the true worship of Abel who came in his 
weakness and rested upon the strength of another—the power 
of God whom his weakness needed. And all who are willing to 
bear that title of frailty may learn the mercies of a covenant- 
keeping God. They may live the new Christ-life and have 
the dynamic power of Christ to assist them now and to give them 
triumph in death. 


50. Two Types. Here, then, are the two types side by side. 
The Cain line represents the carnal world and produces men 
who are great in the eyes of the world. These all perished 
in the flood, showing thereby how great civilizations utterly fail 
to save and perpetuate the race. The Seth line demonstrated the 
Christ-life in the world. ‘There is no world-renown in it. All 
that we know of Seth is set forth in the words “and he died.” 
The greatest fact that a Christian man can demonstrate is that 
of death—death in Christ and death to the world. He may live 
a life of sacrifice that will manifest the spirit of Calvary. He 
should live a life so above the base and unworthy things of the 
world and manifest a spirit so different from that of the world 
as to put all men on notice that he has hopes of a life higher 
than that which we have here. 

This life and its outcome is beautifully illustrated in the story 
of Enoch recorded in the fifth chapter. He was a prophet, the 
seventh from Adam (Jude 14) and prophesied especially of the 
time of the coming of the Lord in His glory and to execute judg- 
ment upon the ungodly. It is said of him that he “walked with 
God and was not for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). The writer 
of the book of Hebrews says “By faith Enoch was translated that 


82 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


he should not see death; for before he was translated he had this 
testimony that he “pleased God” (Heb. 11:5). Other men had 
lived and died, but in the case of Enoch God interfered with the 
ordinary course of nature and made him a trophy of his own 
glorious victory over the power of death. Enoch had lived not 
for this life only, but in a hope of the after life, and God separated 
him unto that life. While on earth he had separated himself from 
worldly thoughts and from worldly companions and had “walked 
with God.” Having cultivated a desire to be with God he was 
granted his desire, for God took him unto the beauties of a life 
that has been delivered from death into life. In this incident 
God shows us first, that His redemption brings us into fellowship 
with Himself while we are yet on earth; second, that after this 
life it brings us into the fullness of life with Himself in the 
heavenly home. 


51. Resume. In these chapters we have found that men 
cannot approach God except on the basis of sacrifice; that the 
sacrifice must be one of blood and death; that it requires faith 
to make such an offering. We have seen that the worshipper is 
not accepted unless his offering is—that the worshipper and the 
offering are alike accepted or rejected and that all acceptable 
sacrifices point to Jesus the eternal Sacrifice and hope of sinners. 
We have seen that false worshippers always persecute the true; 
that we are to live for another life instead of this and that the 
true man of faith in Jesus will ultimately triumph over death 
and live forever with God. 


In it all we have seen something of the wonders of Jesus who 
was slain and yet risen. He went through death to life and 
through defeat to victory. Abel is slain but rises again in Seth 
to live a victorious life and to issue in Noah who should give 
rest from the labor occasioned in the curse and who passed 
through judgment to a new world. Here is the explanation of 
the mystery of the atonement. The bruised heel of the Victor 
in man’s behalf deepens until it issues in the death of the Victim. 
It seems like the serpent’s victory, but it is the instrument of 
_ divine goodness in delivering men. ‘The bruised heel bruises the 
_ head of the serpent and thus the Great Sufferer is victorious 


THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL 83 


through His suffering. All of Cain’s family have perished in 
the flood and the spirit of Abel through Seth and his descendant 
Noah alone survive. 


CHAPTER Vil 


The Story of the Flood 


Questions and Themes for Study. (1) Why did God decide to de- 
stroy the race? 6:1-13. (2) On what grounds was Noah exempt from 
the destruction of the flood? 6:8, 9; 7:1. (3) What is the size and what 
are the material and contents of the ark? 6:14-22. (4) What was the 
entire length of the flood? 7:11, 24; 8:4, 13, 14. (5) What was the 
nature of Noah’s sacrifice and of God’s new covenant with him? 8:20- 
9:17. (6) What was the nature of Noah’s sin? 9:20-21. (7) From 
what is the origin of the nations traced? 9:18-19; 10:1,32. (8) What 
are some of the traditions of the flood? (9) What was the attitude 
of Noah’s sons toward the sin of their father? 9:22-23. (10) What 
great achievement did the race undertake on the plain of Shinar and 
with what purpose? 11:2-9. (11) To what did God object and how 
did He defeat their plans? 11:6-7. (12) What is the explanation of 
the origin of languages? 11:1, 8-9. (13) What are some traditions of 
the tower of Babel? 


Introductory Statement 


52. The Two Races. The last chapter closed with two 
distinct and well established races upon the earth—the de- 
scendants of Cain and of Seth. The former had fully rejected 
God and His ways and had merited His extreme displeasure. 
It is an off-cast race, fully rejected of God, and illustrates 
the godless condition of all those who continue in sin and 
reject God’s way of salvation. The latter had from the very 
first been under the special divine favor. Seth, their great 
ancestor, had been filled with the spirit of Abel and through 
him the worship which Cain rejected and which was inter- 
rupted by the murder of Abel, was again begun upon the 
earth (Gen. 4:25-26). This latter race was famous, because 
through it came the great company of men of faith described 
in chapter five, of whom Noah, so prominent in this chapter, 
is the glorious prophet. So different were these two races 
—one being distinguished for its carnality and the other 


THE STORY OF THE FLOOD 85 





for its spirituality—that the children of Cain were called “the 
sons of men”, and those of Seth “the sons of God” (chapter 
6:2). This distinction reminds us of the work of Christ who 
gives us the power to become the sons of God (Jno. 1:12). 


53. A Sad Mistake. But “the sons of God’ (descendants 
of Seth) made a very sad mistake in the cttitude they as- 
sumed toward “the sons of men” (Cain’s descendants). They 
looked upon the daughters of Cain and because they were 
very beautiful took them for wives. At first and outwardly, 
great advantages seemed to result from these marriages. 
Their children became great giants and were mighty men of 
renown. But is was a union brought about by yielding to 
lust and issued in great wickedness, especially in the corrup- 
tion of the descendants of Seth. It was a union of the 
religious with the irreligious portion of the race and shows 
how the indulgence of lust and appetite will degrade the 
noblest people. It was a union of the holy with the pro- 
fane, an unholy union of the divine with that which was 
human, a mingling together of the truth of God with false- 
hood, a combination of the blessing of faith in Christ and the 
work of sinful hands. And note that the trouble came be- 
cause the servants of God went off after the world. This 
is as it is ever. And the outcome warns us that we make 
no compromise in the matter of truth—that in so doing we 
have everything to lose and nothing to gain. It has an ap- 
plication to the whole question of religious or denomina- 
‘tional union. ‘There was a show of physical strength, but 
it availed nothing. So also there is a heralded strength and 
bigness in the so-called union movements, but, if they are 
at the sacrifice of conviction and truth, it will be a bigness 
without the power of God to make it a blessing. In this 
case it led to a wickedness so great and so universal that 
God in His wrath determined to destroy the whole race. They 
had become so corrupt that “every imagination of the thought 
of his heart was only evil continuously” (Gen. 6:5) and God 
declared, “My spirit shall not always strive with men,” and 
set one hundred and twenty years as the limit when He would quit 


86 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


striving with him and destroy him (chapter 6:3). It is the story 
of this destruction by means of the flood that we are to study 
in this chapter. Our study should proceed along two lines, 
first, along the lines of the distinctly typical applications, 
second, in the direction of the suggestive lessons or de- 
ductions. 


Distinctly Typical Calculations 


In I. Peter 3:18-22 we find a commentary on the flood, as a 
type. The ark is declared to be a type of Christ, the flood 
a type of the judgment of the whole world and the bringing 
of some safely through it, a type of salvation. In enlarging 
upon these suggestions, this passage also makes the flood 
typify the same thing as baptism. This last suggestion is 
very significant when we remember that baptism represents 
the burial and resurrection of Jesus and that He was baptised 
in the Jordan. 


54. Jesus and the Jordan. The word Jordan means “de- 
sceuding judgment”. The river rises high up in the snows 
of Mount Hermon, and is at last swallowed up in the Dead 
Sea where nothing live evists. Everything that its descend- 
ing waters carry down into that sea is destroyed and well 
illustrates God’s judgment against sin. Here is an explana- 
tion of the baptism of Jesus. He came to John at Jordan 
and was submerged in its waves of judgement, thereby typ- 
ifying the baptism of death which according to His own 
words, He was later to accomplish. Figuratively, Jesus was 
passing through the wrath of God against sin as on Colvary 
later, He actually passed through it. Symbolically He was 
taking the place of a sinner overwhelmed by the wrath of 
God as on the cross He really bore the divine judgment as 
a substitute for sinners. Here, then is the reason for Christ’s 
baptism, the meaning of His word to John the Baptist “Thus 
it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” He must begin by 
baptism which prefigures how He is to end His earthly 
career in His substituionary death on the cross. But He 


THE STORY OF THE FLOOD 87 


arose out of the waters of the Jordan, not being swept down 
into the sea of death, and thereby prefigures His victory over 
death in the resurrection. Jesus declared that the experiences 
of Jonah in the depths of the sea, and his deliverance was a 
figure of His death and resurrection and Peter here teaches 
the same thing about the flood. But these billows of God’s 
righteous judgment unto death and safe deliverance beyond 
it, not only had reference to Jesus, but became also a type of 
our death and resurrection with Him (Col. 3:3). We died 
with Him and are resurrected with Him. The whole imagery 
is highly suggestive. It sees Jesus overwhelmed by the judg- 
ments of God and yet conqueror over them all—all as our 
substitute. 


55. The World Before the Flood. The antedeluvian world 
was in many ways like all the world always. It was dead in 
sin. There were about it some noteworthy and remarkable 
things. It had great prosperity, a thing not to be despised. 
It had many beautiful women who should not in that have 
been a curse. It had men of great physical and carnal re- 
nown. This also should have been turned to their blessing. 
But the only thing which was really great—great in God’s 
sight—was its wickedness. There was nothing good. Their 
very thoughts and imaginations were continually evil. There 
was universal wickedness that furnishes a terrible picture of 
that “total depravity” which is so horrible and which the 
world is so loathe to accept. God had already passed judg- 
ment upon the world. He said “The end of all flesh is come 
before me” (Gen. 6:13). They were already lost. They had 
been judged and condemned. ‘The Adamic life was no longer 
in a state of probation or trial. God was done with it. It 
was already condemned and in every way a fit type of the 
unbelieving world which is already judged (Jno. 3:18). It 
was in a condition like John described as “(I Jno. 5:19). 


56. The Wood of the Ark. The way of salvation as typi- 
fied by the ark may be approached in various ways. The very 
timber out of which it was made is suggestive. It was made 


88 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


of gopher wood, or the acacia tree which was the only timber 
tree in the desert. This tree is used as a type of Christ when 
it is said He grew up as a “root out of dry ground” 
(Isa. 53:2). Just as the gopher thrived where there was no 
apparent moisture, so Jesus while a man in this desert world 
drew all His sustenance from a hidden source. ‘Then, too, it 
had to be cut down before it could be made into the ark 
which kept the family of Noah alive. Just so Jesus had to 
be cut off out of the land of the living. Cutting this timber 
then, speaks of Christ’s death by which He became the way 
of salvation. Here is the crucifixion. 


57. The Pitch. It is also interesting to note that the ark 
was pitched within and without. This word pitch is “copher” 
and was the resin of the tree and represents the very essence 
of its hfe. Very significant also is the fact that this word 
“pitch” is the same word translated “atonement” or “cover 
up”. The essence of the life of the desert tree—this “root out 
of dry ground,” which it shed when it was cut down, made 
the covering or atonement that kept out the billows of divine 
judgment and secured the safety of all those within the ark. 
Here then, the ark as fully prepared, not only suggests the 
death of Christ, but also the atonement of His blood which 
covers us up in Himself and secures us against all wrath and 
judgment. It is, after all, His blood that shields us from 
destruction. How blessed this truth that we are sheltered 
under that atoning blood! 


58. Entrance Into the Ark. Two or three things about 
entrance into the ark should be said. First of all, we should 
hold in mind that the ground, of the right of Noah’s family 
to enter it, was the righteousness of Noah to whom they 
were related. This is as a type of Jesus upon whose divine- 
human righteousness alone can we enter into safety from the 
wrath of God. In the second place, the time of their entrance 
into the ark is of much importance. Did they enter it before 
the flood came, or did they have to go through the flood to 
get into it? This is important in connection with the place 


THE STORY OF THE FLOOD 89 


of baptism in our relation to Jesus. They were in the ark 
before the flood began. And, since the flood and baptism 
typify the same thing, one at once reaches the conclusion 
that one does not have to go through baptism to get into 
Jesus, but must enter Him by faith before baptism. Bap- 
tism is, therefore, not necessary to save us, or to help us to 
become Christians. 


59. The Flood and The Resurrection. But the flood, like 
baptism, is a type of the resurrection also. Here are forty 
days of prevailing waters (Gen. 7:4, 12, 17), representative of 
perfect or satisfied judgment. In the third chapter of Jonah 
we have forty days, denoting complete repentance and for- 
giveness. In Luke 4:2 we have forty days of conflict and 
Christ’s complete triumph over satan. In Acts 1:3 there is 
recorded the completion of the forty days of resurrection 
instruction and plan for the work of a resurrected Christ 
through the resurrection lives of His disciples who have died 
to sin and the world and have been made alive unto Christ. 
They were landed beyond the judgment represented by the 
flood as Jesus arose from the death it prefigured. 

Then, too, the ark landed on Ararat, which means “holy 
ground”. ‘Those who have passed through the flood, whom, 
on its own buoyancy, the ark bore up above the mountain 
tops to the blue heavens were now to begin in the world 
beyond the flood and were to step out on “holy ground”’—a 
cleansed earth. It is a striking fact also that the ark rested 
there on the seventeenth day of the seventh month or the 
exact date of the resurrection of Jesus. When He said “This 
day have I begotten thee” (Psa. 2:7), He shows that He 
knew the exact day when He would rise. And since He is 
the “first-begotten by the resurrection”, we, too, become sons 
by the resurrection (Rom. 1:4). 

The dove and olive branch are also important as touching 
the resurrection. The dove found no rest for her foot so 
long as the waters of judgment were still upon the earth 
She would not stay out on the earth till the flood was en- 
tirely over. Here is a suggestion as to the Holy Spirit. He 


90 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


came to Jesus at His Baptism in the form of a dove. But 
He came after Jesus was baptized, not before. It was after 
He symbolically died and rose again. He belongs to the 
Risen Christ and can abide only on the ground of a fully 
accomplished redemption. All judgment must be passed so 
that there can be entire security for the risen Christ-life in 
us. In like manner Jesus did not send the Holy Spirit to 
abide on us till He had gone to God, triumphant over death. 
Nor can we receive Him till we are delivered from the judg- 
ment and power of sin. The olive leaf is the first to put out 
in the spring and speaks of the resurrection, and the olive 
tree speaks of the spirit of Pentecost which followed Calvary. 


General and Practical Applications 


Turning now itom this more strictly typical interpreta- 
tion to a little more general and practical application of 
these same principles, let us pursue our study a little further. 
And in so doing a variety of viewpoints or angles of ap- 
proach suggest themselves. We choose as among the most 
helpful of these to study: (1) The flood as a whole. (2) The 
story of Noah as a type of the life and work of Jesus. (3) 
The ark. (4) The rainbow covenant after the flood was past. 


60. The Flood as a Whole. First, then, let us look at 
the flood itself, and in its entirety. The whole story is 
everywhere filled with suggestions of the final great judg- 
ment, indeed of all judgment. It was brought on by the 
wickedness of the people and that after the long-suffering of 
God. Men had become so universally wicked that God saw 
that the only way to preserve righteousness and true re- 
ligion in the earth would be to destroy the ungodly. All of 
the people were involved and all were destroyed except the 
few of Seth’s descendants who gave heed to the divine 
warning and made themselves ready. The children of Cain 
were all destroyed, thus showing how all unbelievers will 
finally be brought to ruin. The saving of the family of 
Noah illustrates how surely will every one, who trusts him- 
self to God and His plan, escape. ‘The whole story shows 


THER. STORY OF THE FLOOD 91 


us again how all human means utterly fail us when the day 
of God’s wrath shall come and how secure from all of its 
consequences are all of those who trust themselves to the 
plan which God provides. Salvation and destruction are both 
made manifest in this great catastrophe. 


61. Noah and His Work. And now let us consider Noah, 
the hero of this entire section and the man to whom God 
made known His purpose to destroy all flesh and through 
whom He provided a means of escape from this great calam- 
ity The Scripture says of him that he “found grace in the 
sight of Jehovah” (Gen. 6:8). This favor was no doubt 
because of his character and conduct and because of his 
attitude toward Jehovah. He is said to have “walked with 
rod stsen. 6:95" 7:1). And: Peter ‘calls him')a) preacher: of 
righteousness. He was a righteous man and furnishes us the 
first illustration of a man saved from destruction while others 
around him were destroyed. In Hebrews we are told that 
it was by faith that he was enabled to prepare a way of escape, 
and by it he both condemned the world and became heir 
of the righteousness which is by faith (Heb. 11:7). 


62. Noah as a Man. In this view we are considering him 
merely as a man. And in him we find a truth that illustrates 
the way by which all men are saved from the wrath of God. 
He had a faith which enabled him to see beyond the outward 
appearance of things around him—a faith that saw a hundred 
and twenty years ahead when God would pour out His wrath 
upon all sinful men. That is, he did not live his life with re- 
gard to the present only. His plans were made more with ref- 
erence to the future than the present. Then, too, he was saved 
because he had faith enough to trust himself to the way which 
God had described to him and had declared to be a safe and 
certain means of escape. So are men saved today by trusting 
themselves to the way of life which God has revealed in 
Christ. 


63. Noah a Type. But Noah must be studied not just as 
a man, but as a type and illustration of Christ. He is indeed 


92 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 





one of the very fullest of all the human types of Jesus. He is 
the first illustration of a man, who, because of his own right- 
eousness and obedience, was enabled to save others from an 
impending divine judgment. It was because he was acceptable 
to God that he was given a revelation of the divine purpose 
to destroy all flesh and that he was chosen to prepare a means 
of escape for all others who would accept it. God gave him 
the plan and he worked it out and completed it according to 
the divine will. He paid all of the expense, or did the work 
necessary to provide the ark. In all this he gives us an ex- 
hibition of the work of Jesus, Who was altogether pleasing 
to God, before undertaking the work of redemption and who 
worked out and fulfilled the Father’s will, so that He could 
offer salvation to,men on a basis of perfect obedience. Just 
as it was through and by Noah that any were saved from the 
flood, so it is by and through Jesus that any of us are saved 
from the divine wrath. They were saved by the means which 
he prepared just as we are saved by means prepared of Jesus 
—and that at His own cost. 


Then, too, Noah became a preacher of righteousness and 
endeavored to induce men to accept the means of safety which 
under God he had provided. In this He parallels the work of 
Christ who, having wrought out a plan of salvation, now 
offers safety to all who will accept it. Not only is destruction 
determined and a way of escape provided, but every possible 
effort is put forth to induce the people to see their impending 
danger and to accept the divine provision against it. Jesus 
through it is impleading with men to accept His salvation. 


64. Noah’s Family Saved. Yet again, it is very interesting 
and highly suggestive to note that all of the members of Noah’s 
family were saved from the destructive judgment. At first 
one is saddened to think that no one else believed in Noah and 
his ark but his own family. One feels a sense of pity that his 
influence seemed to be so limited. And yet, there is a sense 
of genuine satisfaction in knowing that he did have the full 
confidence of all those who were so near to him and who had 
cause to know him most fully. How glad one is and what a 


THE STORY OF THE FLOOD 93 


sense of relief it gives to find that no member of his own family 
failed of the salvation he had provided. Many a servant of 
God has not succeeded quite so well in this regard. 

And how significant is this fact when compared with the 
work of Christ Jesus! Just as Noah saved all of his own fami- 
ly, so Jesus saves all who come to Him for shelter from the 
consequences of their sins. He could say to the Father “Those 
whom thou hast given me have I kept and none of them is 
lost but the son of perdition that the Scriptures might be ful- 
filled” (Jno. 17:12). Here is a most assuring suggestion—that 
just as Noah succeeded in saving all of his family from the 
flood, so will Christ save from the divine wrath all of those 
who have joined themselves to Him. He will not lose any 
who have ever been born into His spiritual family. Moreover, 
Noah became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. In- 
deed he was the head of all the delivered family of men who 
in turn became forever linked to Him as their great head 
and ancestor. So, likewise, Jesus is the head of all the spirit- 
ual seed and we, having been born unto Him, can never become 
separated from Him. We are included with Him in His vic- 
tory over the divine wrath against sin, and nothing can 
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord (Rom. 8:38-39). 


65. The Ark. But let us turn now to the consideration of 
the ark as a means of salvation from the flood to see if it 
has for us any lessons that are illustrative of the work of 
Jesus in world redemption. And to begin with, it should be 
said that the ark was frequently used and always with the 
purpose of saving that which was in danger of being de- 
stroyed. ‘The infant Moses, when there hung over him the 
King’s sentence of death, was put in an ark of bulrushes 
and thrust out into the river and thereby escaped the wrath 
of the king until he was rescued by the sympathetic ‘hand of 
Pharoah’s daughter. <A little later, when God gave the law, 
Moses himself broke the tables before he reached the multi- 
tude of Israel. God renewed those stones and then caused 
them to be put in the Ark of the covenant and there they 


94 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


were kept whole, just as Jesus kept in His own body the law 
which men had formerly broken, thus again thaking the ark 
a type of Christ. Then, too, the mercy seat was placed on 
top of this ark and there with mercy resting on the un- 
broken law which was in the ark beneath. God dispensed 
mercy to the people. In like manner Jesus having kept 
whole the law of God in Himself, we can receive mercy and 
forgiveness through Him. 


66 The Ark and Christ’s Saving Work. Holding these 
facts in mind we approach the saving work of Christ as it 
is seen and illustrated in the story of Noah’s Ark. And first 
of all it was the divinely chosen means and plan by which 
men could escape from God’s judgment upon a wicked 
world. Moreover, it was provided for and ready long before 
the flood began and, therefore, ready before it was needed. 
‘This is as Christ who stood as a Lamb slain from before the 
foundation of the world. The plan of salvation was not an 
after thought with God. He was not caught in the necessity 
of changing all His plans after man had fallen. He saw it 
all before hand and had the plan prepared. Then, too, no 
other way could avail to protect and save the people except 
this ark which was the divine provision. This is precisely 
the position of Christ and Savior. Just as the ark was their 
only way of escape so is there no other way of salvation 
from sin, but Jesus. “For there is none other name under 
heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts. 
4:12). No doubt the wicked inhabitants of the earth, who 
had refused to enter the ark, tried, when they saw the flood 
coming, to devise means by which they could escape. We 
may imagine them climbing the mountain sides or high into 
the tree-tops in an effort to escape the fury of the rising 
waters. But all was in vain. The flood prevailed over the 
whole earth and all flesh perished except those who were in 
the ark. So will men not refuse to accept Jesus and then, in 
the day of final outpouring of God’s wrath upon sin and its de- 
votees, find that no effort or plan of their own can avail to 
secure them from the divine fury. The story most certainly 


THE STORY OF THE FLOOD 95 


teaches us that in all cases only God’s way will suffice us 
and Jesus is Himself that way. For He is “the way, the 
truth, and the life’ (Jno. 14:6). 


67. Safety in the Ark and in Christ. This leads to the re- 
mark that in Christ there is perfect safety. Not only did 
every one who was not in the ark perish, but everyone who 
entered it came safely out and rested his foot safely upon the 
cleansed earth. No one was lost who trusted himself to the 
ark. So all who deposit their souls with Jesus are perfectly 
safe. None who accept Christ will ever be lost. In the 
meantime, while their souls rested in the ark all the floods fell 
upon it and the waters bore it upon their troubled bosom, 
but those within were as safe as the ark itself. It must go 
down and be destroyed ere they suffer. 

In this again we have an illustration of the saving work 
of Jesus. He went to the cross and there was made sin for 
t1e(2 Cor: 5°21)> (While there ‘He’ occupied, the very same 
position that sin occupied in the sight of God. He was not 
a sinner, but took the place of sin, and bore all the shafts of 
_ divine hatred against it. But like the ark He was not Him- 
self utterly destroyed. All this is to say that while we are 
hiding in Him and are protected by Him, He receives (or 
received on Calvary) every blow that would otherwise have 
fallen upon us. This illustrates the truth that Jesus “bore 
our sins in His body on the tree” (I Pet. 2:24) and that “The 
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all” (chapters 53: 
6) while we are delivered from the wrath of God through 
Him (Rom. 5:9). And we who have taken refuge in Him 
cannot be harmed unless He shall go down under the power 
of that wrath. 


68. Entrance into the Ark and into Christ Voluntary. Let 
it also be remembered that no one was forced to enter this 
ark. It was fully and freely prepared and all were invited 
and urged to enter and take advantage of its provisions, but 
each one was left entirely free to act as he willed. All 
those who entered did it at their own will. Nor was there 


96 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


any prohibitory price to prevent their entering. They were 
asked to pay no part of the expense of building the ark. It 
was absolutely free to them. Noah, under God’s instruction, 
had prepared it and offered them safety without money and 
without price. 


So it is in our salvation in Jesus. The way was prepared 
wholly at the expense of divine love. Jesus pays all and 
offers us salvation as a gift. We do not have to pay any 
part of the price of our redemption, but observe that it is 
simply offered to us. God does not require any one to ac- 
cept Jesus as Savior. No one is saved against his will. The 
Lord does persuade us, even as Noah preached to the peo- 
ple. We are free to reject Him or not as we will. God can, 
therefore, make a true charge against all who perish saying 
“ye would not come unto me that ye might have life”. The 
blame for the loss of every life then was that they would 
not enter the ark and the blame for the loss of every soul 
that shall spend eternity in despair will rest upon the in- 
dividual himself or herself. They act upon their own wish. 


69. God In Charge After We Enter Christ. It is notice- 
able, however, that when once they entered the ark, they 
immediately lost their freedom. God had charge alike of 
the ark and of all that was in it. He held the keys in His 
own hand. He shut the door, thereby enclosing them with- 
in. They could not have gotten out, if they desired. It is 
unthinkable that they should have desired to get out, but if 
they had, it would have been impossible. They were there, 
securely shut in, to remain in safety until the flood was en- 
tirely assuaged and God could invite them out beyond the 
flood and on a new and cleansed earth. So it is when we 
enter Christ. We are no longer free to shape our own des- 
tiny. God has undertaken our deliverance from sin and will 
carry the undertaking through to completion. We have en- 
tered into Christ and He has sealed us there until all of the 
dangers of destruction are past. We enter into Jesus, but 
God sees to it that we stay in Him until the day of revelation 
of His glory in final salvation. It is beyond our power to 


THE STORY OF THE FLOOD 97 


be lost when we have entered into Jesus. And just as every 
one who entered the ark was saved, so every one who ever 
enters by faith into Jesus will be saved. Nor did their feel- 
ings while in the ark and while the flood raged, have any- 
thing to do with their safety. Whether they slept peace- 
fully and in full confidence or were terror-stricken all the 
time they were in the ark made no difference in their safety. 
It was no longer their enterprise or responsibility, but God’s. 
His honor was now envolved and they were safe unless God 
proved unfaithful in keeping His promise to them, or the 
means He had provided should prove insufficient. So will 
we be saved, unless God’s Christ shall fail us. 


70. Safe Before Judgment Began. Here let us observe 
that not only was the ark complete before the flood began, 
but all those who were willing to be saved were in the ark 
and safely shut in before the rains began to fall. Not one 
drop of it fell upon them. It all fell upon the ark. So in 
the matter of salvation in Christ those who are to be saved 
will be in Him sealed and safe before the day of wrath ap- 
pears. This is always the Lord’s way. Jf He would destroy 
Sodom, He would come down and get Lot entirely out of the 
city before any fire fell. Let all who have accepted Christ 
be entirely at rest. No one of them will be caught in the 
floods of judgment, for God will have them safe before any 
of His wrath shall descend. 


71. Saved by Faith. So here also is seen the place of faith 
in the whole matter. ‘The ark was complete and the family 
of Noah was invited in and was securely shut up there be- 
fore there were any visible signs of the coming flood. God 
had declared that it would come and had invited them to 
enter the ark for safety against that which as yet had not 
begun to manifest itself. To enter the ark at such a time 
was an act of faith. They acted not on appearances, but 
on the word of God. ‘Their salvation from the flood was, 
therefore, by faith. In the same way we are saved in Christ 
Jesus. It is wholly through faith in His Name that we are 


98 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


brought into saving relation to God’s grace. And we trust 
Him now, while as yet we are in no apparant or visible 
danger. 


72. The World Situation. Taking the story as a whole, 
we see a wicked world which God has determined to destroy. We 
have a divine way provided to save any and all who accept 
that way. We have a little group of eight persons who were 
wise enough to believe God and to avail themselves of the 
provision which He had made. The flood came and all the 
race perished except those who had trusted themselves to the 
divine means of escape. ‘Then, too, we see the little group 
that had escaped, begin a new life beyond the power of the 
flood. Precisely this, says Jesus, is the situation as it will 
exist when He shall come for final judgment. He says that 
it will be at His coming just as it was in the days of Noah. 
The people will be busy about their own affairs. They will 
not be looking for Him nor will they be expecting any danger 
or prepared for it and will, therefore, be destroyed. But all 
believers will be safe in the power of His grace. 


73. Saved Worshippers and the Rainbow Covenant. When 
the flood was over and they were again out on the earth, 
they did just as we should expect of them. They set up anew 
the true worship of God. Their sense of joy and gratitude, 
like that of all redeemed souls, sought expression in worship 
to Him who had delivered them. They built an altar and 
made such a sacrifice to God as had probably never been 
seen on earth before. In response to this true spirit of wor- ° 
ship, God came down and made a new covenant with Noah. 
He promised that He would not again bring a flood upon 
the earth. That is to say, He promised that those who through 
faith had been saved from the awful scourge would never 
again be endangered by it. Here is a most precious truth 
when we apply it to the saving work of Jesus. It teaches us 
how Jesus, before He releases those who have committed 
themselves to Him, carries them to a position where they can 
never be brought back into the judgment of God. They are 


THES LORY Ob MPIE ELOOD 99 





put entirely past the flood which has dried up and can never 
return again. So Jesus delivers us past all danger of judg- 
ment of God. 


74. The Rainbow. ‘To assure them that their deliverance 
from flood was final they were given the sign of the rainbow 
or the rainbow covenant. In establishing this covenant God 
said “I will remember”. It is to remind Him as well as to 
assure Noah and his family. His promise is to remember His 
covenant, but not to remember their sins. Now how like the 
cross of Christ is all this! By it He ratified and sealed His 
covenant of mercy and by it He also put away our sins. In 
every way this is a beautiful emblem. Noah and his family 
would naturally fear lest another flood would come upon 
them. Remembering the past, fear would seize their hearts 
whenever any dark cloud would arise or any rain begin to 
fall. So God put His rainbow across such dark cloud as a 
guarantee that it would not bring a flood. Across the dark 
cloud was stretched God’s beautiful bow which would call 
to their minds His promise and would assure them He had 
not forgotten His covenant. And those of us who have been 
careful to observe, know that the blacker and more threaten- 
ing the cloud, the brighter and more beautiful is the rain- 
bow and hence the fuller and more perfect the divine assur- 
ance of our safety from the apparant danger. 


75. The Rainbow and Jesus on the Cross. Now this rain- 
bow is a fit emblem or type of Jesus and His work on the 
cross and also of His work of assurance to us all the time. 
At the cross there was all the darkness of a most awful 
tragedy. Even the mid-day became black as night. Jesus 
was bearing the suffering of a lost world. But there was 
also beauty there and hope. There He could pray for the 
forgiveness of His enemies. There He could and did offer 
a penitent thief a place of glory with Himself in Paradise. He 
could declare “It is finished” and thus let us see a perfected 
plan of redemption and an end of such suffering for all those 
who should trust Him. He, Himself, is never again thus to 
suffer. So that now when any terrible calamity threatens the 


100 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 





eternal interests of the believer, he may and should look to 
Jesus on the cross as his rainbow of hope spanning the cloud 
that threatens him and rest in peace. For Jesus is ever in 
Heaven and in the presence of God as a perpetual remem- 
brance of His covenant of mercy with us. He is there as our 
guarantee that we will not again fall under the divine judg- 
ment and wrath unless God shall revoke His covenant. As 
long as there is a rainbow the world is safe from a flood and 
so long as Jesus remains in the presence of God all believers 
are safe from destruction. 


76. Noah After the Flood. Beginning anew with a clean 
and purified earth, Noah and his family occupied very much 
the same position which Adam did at first when placed in 
the garden of Eden, except that they had in themselves the 
evil effects of an inherited sinful nature. And like Adam, 
Noah fell under the power of a temptation to sin and like 
Adam he failed and was found naked. This is a most pathet- 
ic picture and reminds us that awful dregs of sin remain in 
the very best of men. One would expect that with all of 
his past experience of grace and his new start in a world 
where the wicked had all perished, Noah would have kept from 
sin, but the story reveals to us how impossible it is for man, 
no matter how encouraging his surroundings, to measure up 
to the divine requirements. No matter what his privileges, 
no mater how great his advantages, no matter how desirable 
his position and environment, he will always exhibit his weak- 
ness and sin. Every man will sometime and somehow show 
his need of a Savior and for divine covering. However, this 
ereat sin did not put him in the danger of another flood, 
which God had already declared should not come. Nor do 
our blunders after we have become Christians, no matter 
how shameful, put us in danger of damnation. 


77. Noah’s Nakedness Covered. And here again as in the 
garden the man’s sin discovers his nakedness and his naked- 
ness is covered. It is very significant that those who covered 
him did not look upon his nakedness. ‘hese two sons, Shem 


THE STORY OF THE FLOOD 101 


and Japheth, refused to look upon him in his shameful and 
exposed condition. They surely knew something Of yane 
blessedness of “the man whose iniquity is forgiven and whose 
sin is covered.” In turning their backs upon his sin and 
nakedness and in covering up his shame they furnished us a 
fine illustration of the divine method of dealing with human 
sins, and particularly with the sins of believers. Through 
the blood of Christ He would cover up all of our sins so that 
He may not look upon them and be moved to destroy us. 
Here again is found the blessing of the righteousness of Christ 
in which the believer is clothed and by which his sins are 
blotted out. 


CHAPTER VII. 


The Story of Abraham 


Questions and Themes for Study. (1) Why did Abraham leave 
home? 12:1-3. (2) What did he do at the end of the journey? 12:7-8. 
(3) Why did he not remain long at one place? 12:9; 13:2-5. (4) Why 
did he go to Egypt? 12:10. (5) What was the trouble between the 
servants of Abraham and Lot and how was it settled? 13:5-8. (6) On 
what did Lot base his choce? 15:10-11. (7) What two promises did 
God make to Abraham? 13:14-17. (8) What promises were made 
to Abraham concerning his coming son? 13:14-17; 15:5; 17:6-8. (9) 
Who came to Abraham’s tent and how did he treat them? 18:1-8. (9) 
What message did’ he receive from Jehovah? 18:9-15. (11) What 
estimate of Abraham is found in 18:19, 23-32? (12) What is taught. 
about the birth and name of Isaac? 21:1-7. (13) What test of Abra- 
ham did God make and how did Abraham obey? 22:1-10. (14) In 
what two ways did God express His approval? 22:11-12, 15-19. 


The Time and Place of Abraham’s Call 


78. Material Civilization. Since the time of the incidents 
of the last chapter, great changes have taken place in the world. 
The descendants of Noah have repeopled the earth and have 
been separated into various nations. Indeed, long before Abra- 
ham there had been developed a most complex and complete civil- 
ization. Egypt and Chaldea were at the height of their building 
enterprises, the largest of the pyramids having already been com- 
pleted. A great stone wall had long ago been built across the 
Isthmus or Suez, great canal systems had been built, and there 
existed especially in Tyre and Sydon large glass works and dye- 
ing factories. ‘There were carried on immense commercial en- 
terprises both on land and on sea. ‘There had been developed a 
highly efficient system of schools and colleges and there was 
literature. Culture, commerce, law and religion had all reached 
a state of great advancement. This civilization was all prompted 
by religious motives. 


THE STORY OF ABRAHAM 103 


79.° Moral and Religious Conditions. Outwardly this civil- 
ization was one of splendor. It provided forall the comforts of 
the times of peace and had made preparations for defense and 
conquest in times of war. But inwardly there was a great moral 
corruption that was fast bringing the world to ruin. Idol wor- 
ship was everywhere to be found, especially the worship of the 
moon-god or Baal of Haran. This god was the object of the 
worship in Ur of the Chaldees where Abraham was born. It 
was a fierce and lustful worship which fostered such awful 
practices that the descriptions of them horrify us today. It is 
entirely probable that Sodom and Gomorrah whose wickedness 
led to their destruction were but illustrations of the whole civiliza- 
tion of that time. Even Abraham’s father was reputed to have 
been a maker and seller of idols. 


80. Abraham’s Call. Out of such a time and out of such a 
home God called Abraham who should form a new nation and 
establish a pure religion which could be used as the basis of a 
new civilization acceptable to God. He was to leave his kindred 
and native land and for conscience sake, serve the one true and 
only God and that in the midst of social and national customs 
wholly against him. ‘Thus again he was to call back the people 
from their idolatry and set up anew in the world the spiritual 
worship of Jehovah. Moreover, he was to become the father of 
a son out of whom would come the blessing of all the nations. 
In this was a promise of the coming of Christ who should save 
the world from sin. ‘To emphasize this strictly religious purpose 
of his calling, Abraham, wherever he went, built an alter to God 
and worshiped. His was a call to religious statesmanship and 
was met by high and holy religious faith and service. 


Abraham Exemplifies a Life of Faith. 


81. Began in Faith. Such a man chosen as he was to es- 
tablish a new and true religion would be expected to illustrate in 
himself many of the great principles of that religion. And in this 
we are not disappointed. For on the one hand he shows us in 
his own attitudes and actions the true human side and on the 
other illustrates the divine aspects of this Jehovah religion. In 


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104 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


the first place his religion was to be one of faith. He was to 
lead the people to rely upon God for their strength and salvation. 
To found such a religion he must himself be a man of faith. 
It was but natural, therefore, that his first step should require 
faith, and so he was called to leave his own land and people to 
go he knew not where—simply to a country which God would 


_ show him. He must trust the word of God for it. Thus, as 


in all true religion of Jehovah, our spiritual life must begin in 


faith. Abraham, in the one act of taking up that journey toward 


a strange and unknown land, trusted his whole future to God. 
That is precisely what all sinners who would now be saved must 
do—trust their destinies into the hand of Christ. ‘The divine life 
cannot be begun except by an exercise of faith. We must trust 
to Him our career, and our destiny, and venture on His Word. 


82. Lived by Faith. Then, too, he must not only begin his 
relation to God by an act of faith, but must forever thereafter 
trust himself to the divine guidance and blessing. His whole 
life was one requiring a constant exercise of faith. This fact is 
everywhere seen in the story. When the necessity arose for a 
separation between himself and Lot, his nephew, he did no schem- 
ing, but trusted his interests wholly to the wisdom and provi- 
dence of God, while Lot tried by his own wisdom to care for 
himself. Abraham challenged Lot to choose whatever section of 
the country he desired and he would risk whatever was left. Lot 
selfishly selected what promised earthly riches and ease, but soon 
discovered that what he had chosen rested under the curse of 
God. On the other hand, as soon as Lot had separated himself 
and gone to the accursed place of his choice, God visited Abra- 
ham and renewed with him His covenant and gave him new as- 
surances of the divine pleasure and blessing. This is as it is 
always. Whatever we choose by sight out of selfishness and 
because of a lack of faith in God will finally be lost to us, while 
whoever will, as did Abraham, trust his interests all into the hands 
of God and His providence, will never be forsaken or defeated. 
Here, then, Abraham, not only illustrates the truth that we must 
be saved by faith, but that “the just shall live by faith” (Hab. 
2:4; Rom 1:17). We can live no day truly, without looking to 
God for both strength and leadership. 


i? 


“ 


THE STORY OF ABRAHAM 105 





Abraham Illustrates Jesus. 


83. His Attitude Toward God. Let us turn now from the 
consideration of these matters in which Abraham illustrates the 
life of a true man of faith and notice some of the phases of Christ 
and His work which he exhibits. In everything he manifested a 
reverence, a confidence, a love and a submission to God that re- 
minds us of Jesus. His chief desire seems to have been to 
please and obey God. In this he showed forth the spirit of Jesus 
whose very meat and drink was to do the will of the Father 
who had sent Him, Who said he must be about His Father’s busi- 
ness, Who declared “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, 
and Who in the awful garden said “Not my will, but thine be 
done.” 


84, His Sacrifices. Moreover he often made blood sacri- 
fices in which he no doubt saw by faith something of the sacrifice 
that Jesus was to make on the cross. On one occasion at the 
command of Jehovah he made five offerings in one in which were 
summed up much of the work and the meaning of the death of 
Christ (Gen. Ch. 15). On another occasion—that of the sacrifice 
of Isaac and the ram that took his place—he made an offering 
that reminds us of the substitutionary death and resurrection of , 
Jesus. And all of these sacrifices were made at the command and 
according to the will of God. 


85. Relation to Others. Again Abraham became the father 
of the faithful. He was the example and leader of all those who 
were ever to be saved by faith in the promises of God. He trust- 
ed himself to the Invisible One and so became a sort of head or 
father of the whole spiritual family (Rom. 4:16-17). In this 
he occupied a position similar to that occupied by Jesus in relation 
to those who become His disciples. They have Him for their 
head and examplar in all things. He is Author of the way of 
salvation for man, just as Abraham began anew the true worship 
of God at a time when he alone of all men knew God in truth. In 
Abraham all the nations of the earth were to be blessed just as 
all nations and peoples are offered life and light in Christ Jesus. 
Then, too, Abraham became a world blessing, because God chose 


106 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


him and blessed him to that end. So also Jesus is the hope and 
blessing of all mankind, because God the Father, from all eternity, 
set Him apart for such redemptive work. God “laid on Him the 
iniquities of us all” and thus He stood as a Lamb slain from 
before the foundation of the world. 


86. His Rescue of Lot. He also represented Jesus in His 
work of rescuing others. This he does in more ways than one 
and on more than one occasion. ‘The most notable case is his 
work of rescuing Lot. This he does twice and in each illustrates 
a particular phase of Christ’s redemptive work. 


The first instance is narrated in Genesis 14:1-16 and tells 
how, during the battle of the four and five kings, Lot was carried 
away into captivity; Abraham armed his servants and followed 
the captors and by making battle upon them rescued Lot and 
recovered the goods that had been taken. This is a most signifi- 
cant illustration of the work that Jesus does in redeeming us 
from sin. We had all been taken captive by the devil at his will 
and Jesus came to rescue us and so preached deliverance to the 
captives (Lu. 4:18). 

This is all the more fundamental and suggestive when we re- 
call that Lot had separated himself from Abraham and had gone 
into his danger by seeking his own profit and pleasure and not 
that of Abraham. In just this condition Jesus came to men. 
They had wilfully gone away from God and were engaged in the 
pursuit of their own pleasure and profit when satan overtook 
them. But Jesus came down to rescue them. Putting it other- 
wise, Abraham was under no obligation to Lot and therefore 
rescued him because of love, and as a matter of grace, just as 
Jesus saves us. This is an important principle. For it is b 
grace that we are saved and not our own works. (Eph. 2:8-9). 


Moreover, in order to rescue Lot it became necessary for Abra- 
ham to make war upon Lot’s enemy and overcome him. Lot 
was in a helpless condition. He was unable to overthrow his 
enemy and recover himself. And Abraham by attacking these 
enemies had to subject himself to the danger of death (for he 
might be killed in the battle). It was a question of his conquering 


THE STORY OF ABRAHAM 107 


them through his superior strength. Now this is exactly what 
Jesus did for lost sinners. He saw them helpless in the hand of 
satan. ‘They had no means or power of escape. It was necessary 
that He should first overcome the devil. Satan the strong man 
had to be overcome by Jesus the stronger One (Matt.12:29). It 
was a battle royal which began in the wilderness where Jesus was 
forty days tempted of the devil. He continued the struggle un- 
til His death on the cross. In this He triumphed over satan and 
openly exposed his wickedness (Col. 2:15) and even destroyed 
satan (Heb. 2:14). He then rose again from the dead and 
thereby led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. 


The second case of Abraham’s rescue of Lot was very different. 
It did not in any way endanger him and illustrates the work 
Jesus, as our Intercessor, performs. God had determined to des- 
troy Sodom and Gomorrah and came down and fully revealed 
His purpose to Abraham, who at once made an earnest plea for 
any righteous persons who might be living there. While he 
did not mention Lot and showed a faith that halted, God knew 
what he sought and, when the time for the great destruction 
had fully come, He remembered Abraham and his plea and for 
his sake sent His angels down and removed Lot out of the city 
before the destruction began (Gen. 19:29). 


Now this is very like the intercessions of Jesus for His re- 
deemed people. For who can fail to see in this story a parallel to 
the condition that is to exist when the final destruction of all 
things shall come. Lot, the righteous man, liived in a doomed 
city, but he did not know the time or the nature of the destruction 
that threatened it. But before the wrath of God was manifested he 
was removed out of all danger and that because of the interces- 
sions of Abraham. In like manner, the Christian has Jesus who 
will plead his cause and before the wrath of God shall come, He 
will, for the sake of Jesus, come down and remove us entirely out 
of the path of His destructive wrath. Here, then, is our blessing 
that we have Jesus as our Advocate with God. 


87. Redeemer and Intercessor. If we view them together, 
the two occasions of the rescue of Lot discussed above and the 


108 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


part played in each by Abraham are very interesting and instruc- 
tive. In the first case, Lot had been led captive by an evil enemy 
and was rescued by Abraham attacking and overcoming his cap- 
tor. This was as the work of Jesus on the cross and by which 
we are delivered from the power of the devil. In the second place, 
he is in a doomed city and in danger of being destroyed along 
with the city and God sent down His angels and delivered him 
because of the appeals of Abraham. And notice that the rescue 
from a captor came first and the delivery from God’s wrath later. 
That is to say the work of the cross always comes before the work 
of intercession. We are first delivered out of the power of satan, 
in which act we are redeemed from sin and then have our great 
deliverer to guard all of our interests forever thereafter. And 
we may be assured’ that as in the case of Lot, so will it be with 
us—that all who receive the blessing of the work of the cross will 
also be finally removed from the power of God’s wrath. ‘That 
is to say, whenever Jesus once gives us the blessing of His grace 
in the work of redemption, whenever He bestows upon us the for- 
giveness and salvation which He wrought out on the cross, He 
will forever thereafter guarantee our safety from the wrath of 
God. We cannot fail to see that when he had rescued him from 
the power of his enemy he released him to live in the very city 
where he had been captured. He lived there in the doomed city 
until the time of the appearance of the divine judgment against 
it. So does Jesus rescue us from satan and still let us live 
here in this condemned earth where we were overcome by Him. 
It should also be said that when Lot was once delivered from 
his captors he was never again in danger of them. So also when 
through the cross we are delivered from the bondage of satan, 
we are never again in danger of him. Only God’s wrath and 
never satan could endanger us and Jesus, who ever liveth at 
the right hand of God, by His continued intercessions, assures 
against that wrath. “Much more being now justified by His 
blood, we shall be saved by the wrath of God through Him. 
For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the 
death of His Son, much more, being reconciled we shall be saved 
by His life.” (Rom. 5:9-10). It is His exalted life of interces- 
sion that will save us from the wrath of God. 


THE STORY OF ABRAHAM 109 





88. Abraham Represents the Father. At this point we 
should remember that Abraham was more than representative of 
Jesus. There are some matters connected with his life and work 
in which he represents God and Father. It will, of course, be un- 
derstood that in this, as in the matters in which he illustrated the 
work of Jesus, it is not claimed that he perfectly illustrates. A few 
suggestions will be enough to impress the point we raise. Abra- 
ham like God had but one true son and heir and that son, like 
the Son of God, was destined to be a means of blessing to all the 
nations of the earth. Like Jesus, that son abode continually with 
his father and was the very delight of the father’s heart. More- 
over, Abraham was very rich but gave all he had into the hands 
of his son (Gen. 24:36), which reminds us that God has given into 
the hands of Jesus, His only-begotten Son, all authority both in 
Heaven and in earth (Matt. 28:18). Abraham also represented 
God the Father in offering his son in sacrifice and in finding there 
a figure of the resurrection as he received him back as from the 
dead. Once more, he sought and secured for Isaac, his son, a 
bride and saw him happy in receiving her. Just so God the 
Father set Himself the task of securing for Jesus His Son, the 
church, as His bride, and will finally and fully unite them in 
glory. 


Particular Experiences of Abraham. 


Here we turn aside from these more general matters and give 
our consideration to the spiritual suggestions growing out of 
some particular experiences of Abraham. He had some expe- 
riences that especially illustrate the blessings and obligations, as 
well as the work and attitudes of Jesus and the Father and of the 
disciples of Christ. ‘To these we must give some attention. 


89. Sacrifices of Chapter Fifteen. And first, let us consider 
some matters that are recorded in the fifteenth chapter.. God in- 
structed Abraham to prepare and offer to Him a sacrifice and to 
wait upon Him for a revelation of the divine covenant. After 
it was fully prepared Abraham waited for the manifestation of 
Jehovah. But while he waited, fowls or birds of prey came down 
upon the sacrifice and attempted to take it away. But Abraham 


110 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


protected the offering and drove them away. He had been fully 
instructed of God, just what to offer and just how to offer it. He 
had followed the heavenly instructions and was determined not 
to allow anything to interfere and remove the sacrifice which 
according to the will of God he had offered. 


Now here is a lesson for us in all our worship. In the firse 
place God’s way of worship has been made known to us and 
we must not change it or allow it disturbed by another. ‘Then, 
too, we learn that it was in connection with this sacrifice that God 
promised to bring Abraham assurances of the divine blessing and 
to make known to him His will. This is precisely the condition 
of our blessing today. God has shown us how to present Jesus 
His slain Victim for sin as our offering. And only as we come 
to God resting in Him as our sacrifice can we hope to have God 
reveal Himself to us and make known to us His gracious will. 
We must never forget that it is through the crucified Savior 
that we receive all of our spiritual blessings. But there are some 
who bear the attitude toward the crucified Savior that the vul- 
tures did toward the sacrifice of Abraham. They would take Him 
away. ‘They especially try to take away His cross and death. 
They are offended at the cross. But like Abraham we must stay 
near Him and must drive away any and all who would remove 
all or any part of Jesus our sacrifice. We must contend for 
His deity, for His propitiatory and substitutionary death and for 
His glorious resurrection and exaltation. We must drive away 
all critics of Jesus and His redemptive work and must allow no 
doubt about Him to enter our hearts. For it is in Him as our 
sacrifice that we are blessed. He is the basis of all our covenant 
of divine favor and through Him alone may we expect God to 
visit us with blessing. We must not let Him be taken away. 


But as night began to come on, and the vultures were gone, 
Abraham fell into a deep sleep and saw a smoking furnace and 
a burning lamp pass between the portions of his sacrifice and God 
told him that his seed should suffer as slaves for a long period 
of time, but that God would finally judge their oppressor and 
deliver them out of their afflictions. After this they were to 
have great possessions. Now this clearly refers to Israel as a 


THE STORY OF ABRAHAM 111 


nation. It is an exact picture of how they suffered as slaves of 
Egypt and were delivered by the hand of God. ‘They were a 
helpless and down-trodden people, but came out of it all by the 
manifestation of the divine power. Also they came out of Egypt 
“with great substance” (Ch. 15:14), just as this passage predict- 
ed. Of course this may in a way be illustrated by other periods 
of their history, but not in full. 


Here also there is a suggestion of the great work of Israel. 
She was to be a sort of Messianic race—a nation that would bless 
all nations and reveal to them the divine will for them. Jehovah 
would deposit among the Jews His word and through them would 
show to all nations a pattern of all things that are good and right 
in His sight. It was, therefore, fitting that they should first go 
by way of the path of suffering, for it is always necessary for us, 
if we are to sympathize with another, to have all his experiences 
of hardships. 


Once again Israel in this became, as a nation, the type of Jesus. 
Indeed Jesus was to come from Abraham and the nation was a 
figure of the Person who should finally come as the gracious Sav- 
ior. In the nation growing out of Abraham was illustrated in its 
experiences all the experiences of the Son of God who was the 
flower and highest product of that nation. If He was to be a 
suffering Savior she must be a suffering nation. As He was to 
suffer wrongly and be humiliated so was the nation to suffer. 
As he was, after His suffering, to be exalted and given great 
power and glory, so was also Israel. Here then in this vision 
Abraham had something of a revelation of the day of Jesus our 
Savior. It was probably concerning this experience among others 
that Jesus could say “Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my 
day; and he saw it and was glad. (John 8:56). 


90 Ishmael and Isaac and their Mothers. The story of Ish- 
mael and Isaac and their mothers is another matter for our con- 
sideration. In part this is a story of sorrow and shame. God 
had promised to give Abraham a son, but Sarah his wife doubted 
God. She thought she was too old to be the mother of a son and 
induced Abraham to take Hagar her hand-maid for a concubine 


112 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


and let her bear a son. In doing this they ceased to believe God 
and added their own wisdom and works to His promise. They 
were afraid God could not carry out His promises and would 
somehow become embarrassed about it. The result of this un- 
belief and human works was a great sorrow to Abraham and his 
wife. God discarded all their work—rejected Hagar and her 
son Ishmael. He then came to Sarah and caused her to bear a 
son in fulfilment of God’s promise. Paul uses this story as an 
allegory of the doctrines of salvation by works and by faith (Gal. 
4:21-31). It shows how we can add nothing to the promise of 
God. Neither can we mix works and faith. Our relation to God 
will depend wholly upon our reliance upon God’s promise and 
will not be made any surer by the deeds of the law. 


Moreover, we see how great trouble arises when these matters 
are mixed. Paul makes Ishmael a representative of the flesh. 
He was born of the will of man while Isaac was born of the 
will of God. ‘The birth of Ishmael was before that of Isaac, 
showing how man always tries his own works before trusting 
God. ‘Then too, He at once became a source of trouble to Abra- 
ham. Jealousy arose in the heart of Sarah and she treated 
Hagar harshly. But that did not change the condition or remedy 
the evil. When Isaac was born Ishmael teased him and caused 
Abraham fresh trouble. Sarah demanded that Hagar and Ish- 
mael be sent away. She would not suffer her child to be teased. 
And being a representative of the flesh, Ishmael shows how the 
“flesh always lusteth against the Spirit.” The birth of Isaac, the 
spiritual man, did not change the nature of Ishmael. Just so, 
when one is regenerated or there is planted in him the new divine 
life, it does not change our old nature. Nor does that old nature 
ever get any better. We may bring it more and more under sub- 
jection to the Spirit, but it 1s wicked still. It only waits for an 
opportunity or a temptation so that it may express itself. 


But there is another matter connected with this effort of living 
by sight instead of by faith. It set in motion evil influences 
that continued to hinder the work of God for all the future. Let 
it be remembered that this Hagar was an Egyptian. And when 
her son Ishmael grew to manhood she took him a wife from 


THE STORY OF ABRAHAM 113 





among the Egyptians. He grew into a great race of descendants 
called Ishmaelites to whom Joseph was sold and who in turn took 
him into Egypt and sold him into slavery. Esau, Jacob’s offended 
brother, married the daughter of Ishmael. Out of Ishmael also 
came the wandering Arab and many of the sufferings of Israel. 
Here is an illustration of the far-reaching results of our sins. Al- 
though God may pardon us for the mistakes, we can never be 
relieved of the results. We must reap what we sow. If we sow to 
the flesh (and that is what they did in the matter of Hagar and 
her son), we shall of the flesh reap corruption. What a pity that 
they did not trust God at first and not introduce this sore trouble 
into the world! Here is our warning—not to trust to works, but 
to let God work out and fulfill His own purpose. It is Paul’s 
illustration to the Galatians not to add works to faith. 


91. The Sacrifice of Isaac. Before closing this chapter on 
Abraham we must recur again to two matters of great signifi- 
cance. The first concerns the offering of Isaac in sacrifice (Ch. 
22). The main discussion will of course come under the study 
of the life of Isaac. But it is important to note here that it was 
all on the initiative of God and that it especially tested the devo- 
tion of Abraham the father. He had to be willing to give up his 
only son just as God gave up Jesus His only-begotten Son. It is 
a father who gives his son. The father seems the most prominent 
and the son obediently submits to his will. The father answers 
to God who provides Himself a lamb. 


All of it is said to be to tempt or try Abraham and we wonder 
why God should have so tested his faith. But, if rightly under- 
stood, it was worth while. Such a history is worthy of honor. 
God knew his faith and by this requirement brought that faith 
into the sight of others. He was thereby justified in his works 
and at the same time made a wonderful display of the Father’s 
heart. ‘The elements of love and sorrow which filled full the 
father’s cup reveal to us something of the sacrifice which God 
made for the world when He gave His only begotten Son that 
the world might be saved. 


It is this side of the sacrifice—the Father’s—that the apostle 
has in mind when he said “He that spared not His own Son but 


114, GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN :OF REDEMPTION 


overlook the Son’s sacrifice, but we are to give special attention 
to that of the Father. God is not passive, but active as a giver 
when Jesus hangs on Calvary. God has given us His Son—His 
only begotten Son—and in-so doing has once for all declared to 
us His heart. There can be no doubt of His nature or of His 
attitude toward us. Abraham then shows us God in the redemp- 
tive work. It suggests that ““God commendeth His love toward us 
in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). 


92. Isaac Secures a Wife. The other matter that should be 
studied here is the work of Abraham in securing a wife for 
Isaac (chapter 24). In the very first place we are impressed 
with the fact that Abraham had but one son and that he was 
rich, and had given all he had into the hands of his son. This 
compares well with our knowledge of God who had but “one 
only-begotten Son,” Jesus Christ, to whom He gave all things. 
Then, too, the fact that he realized his son’s need for a bride 
and set about providing her for him is very like the work of 
God in providing the church as the bride of Christ. This, again, 
as in the case of Adam and the wife created for him, brings the 
suggestion that we are needful for Christ. 


It should also be impressed upon us that it was all the work 
of Abraham the father. He saw the need and laid the plan and 
prescribed the conditions of the marriage. He decided upon 
what should be the qualifications of the woman whom his son 
should marry. Then, too, he sent forth his servant to accomplish 
his will in the matter. How like the matter of redemption is all 
this! It is all according to the heavenly Father’s plan. He made 
the plan from all eternity and when the time of His purpose came 
He set about seeking out those who should form the bride of 
Jesus and be forever with Him. Just as did Abraham, He also 
furnishes ample proof of his sincerity. Moreover he not only 
sent evidences of the riches and blessing which she should re- 
ceive, but made provision for safely delivering her or bringing 
her to the home of Isaac. In this there is illustrated the truth 
that God has provided ample grace whereby we are to be car- 


THE STORY OF ABRAHAM 115 


ried safely to heaven where we shall be ever with the Lord our 
Savior. 


Before closing it is worth while for us to notice that it was 
just after the death of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, that he secured 
Rebekah for Issac. It is noticeable also that she entered into the 
tent of Sarah and made it her abode. In this we find the sugges- 
tion of the fall or cutting off of Israel which was followed by 
the establishment of the church. Isaac is a type of Jesus and 
Rebekah for Isaac. It is noticeable also that she entered into the 
Father and Sarah a type of Israel. And just as Sarah passed 
away before Rebekah came in, so Israel was discarded and the 
church was established in her place. There was no church be- 
fore, just as Isaac did not have a wife before. All the principles 
of grace promised in Sarah were conserved and assured in Rebe- 
kah whose name means “binding!” So also we have fulfilled 
in the church all the blessings that had been foreshadowed in 
Israel. ‘There has been conserved in it everything good that came 
to us from Israel and there is in her abundant comfort when we 
remember her relation to Jesus. 


93. Abraham’s Second Marriage. And finally, Abraham mar- 
ried again (chapter 25:1). In his second wife, Keturah, we per- 
haps have some foreshadowing of the restoration of Israel. She 
is probably a type of restored Israel. But in all this we are 
raising the question of the dispensational application of these 
stories. And it is not within our purpose to present a dispensa- 
tional discussion. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


The Story of Isaac. 


Questions and Themes for Study. (1) What two restrictions were 
made as to Isaac’s marriage, 24:4, 6, 8? (2) By what test did Abra- 
ham’s servant discover God’s choice for Isaac’s wife, 24:12-14, 17-21? 
(3) What did Abraham’s servant give Rebekah and her people, 24:22, 
53? (4) How was Rebekah received, 24:63-67? (5) What took place 
at Gerar when Isaac visited there, 25:1-17? (6) Why did Abimelech 
want to covenant with Isaac, 26:28? (7) What source of grief came 
to Isaac and Rebekah, 26:34-352? (8) How did Rebekah plan for Jacob 
to deceive Isaac, 27:8-13? (9) Why was Jacob sent away from home, 
27:41-28:5? (10) Who buried Isaac, 35:28-29? 


Already it has been several times indicated that Isaac was a 
type of Christ. We come now to consider the incidents of his 
career in the hope of tracing more fully the suggestions which 
they furnish of Jesus and His work. | 


94. His Birth. (1) Foretold. The first thing to attract our 
attention is the unusual connected with his birth and the first extra- 
ordinary thing about his birth is that it was long foretold. God 
came to Abraham and promised him a seed that should be a bless- 
ing to all mankind. Abraham waited through long weary years and 
grew discouraged about his coming and at the suggestion of 
Sarah his wife took Hagar for a concubine and begat a son by 
her, hoping that he should be the one promised by God. ‘This is 
exactly paralleled in the promise of the coming of Jesus, the 
promised Messiah. Indeed the promise of His coming dates back 
to the garden of Eden. The promise made there that the woman’s 
seed should bruise the serpent’s head was the beginning of a long 
line of promises and prophecies of the coming of Jesus our Say- 
ior. ‘The birth of both were then long foretold and anxiously 
hoped for. 


(2) Impossible in Nature. Again the birth of Isaac was im- 
possible according to nature. Abraham and Sarah were too old 


THE STORY OF ISAAC 117 


to become parents. In describing Abraham’s faith Paul said 
“He considered not his own body now dead, when he was about 
a hundred years old, nor the deadness of Sarah’s womb” (Rom. 
4:19). Here the apostle indicates that by nature Isaac could not 
have been born, either from the standpoint of Abraham (for his 
body was dead) or from the standpoint of Sarah, because of the 
deadness of her womb. All natural power had reached its end 
with them before the power of God was displayed. In this we 
have a fine parallel to the birth of Jesus who was born of a virgin 
without a human father and that by the power of God. Their 
births were similar in that both were impossible in human nature 
unaided by special divine power. Both were born by means of 
a miracle and the birth of one was no more a miracle than that 
of the other. ‘That both were beyond the realm of the ordinary 
processes is emphasized by the fact that God had difficulty in con- 
vincing each of them that she could become a mother. 


Issac’s birth, therefore, forshadowed that of the greater One 
who was yet to come. As he quickened the dead womb of Sarah, 
so He came to Mary who as yet had no husband and caused 
her to conceive and then went to Joseph her espoused husband 
and explained to him the mystery of her conception and the pur- 
pose of the coming of Him she was soon to bear. Here again 
we meet that vital teaching concerning the miraculous or vir- 
gin birth of Jesus. It is a teaching so vital to all Christian faith 
that we do well to emphasize it again. If Jesus was born as 
other men and not directly begotten of the Holy Spirit, He was 
no more than any one of us except in so far as by His own ef- 
forts He may have forged His way ahead of us. In that case 
He was not God manifest in the flesh, but a mere hero among 
men. If on the other hand He was begotten of the Spirit as the 
Bible teaches, He is deity and is to be trusted most fully as one 
able to save us. We must have a deep concern, therefore, that 
the people shall be led to believe rightly about His birth. 


(3) A Source of Gladness. Once more the birth of Isaac 
was to be a source of gladness to others. He was named Isaac, 
which means laughter and is indicative of the joy and blessing 
which he was to bring to his parents and others. But we should 


118 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


notice that his name “Laughter” was given with particular re- 
ference to his father’s joy in him. In all of this Isaac reminds 
us of Jesus. His birth was also to be a source of great gladness 
and blessing to others and He too was named according to the 
blessed work He was set to do. His name, Jesus, signified that 
He would save His people from their sins. Both were to be a 
blessing to all nations of men. And not the meaningfulness of be- 
ing especially destined to the father’s joy. In Christ and in those 
who are in Him by faith or have become the children of God, we 
behold the precious joy of the heavenly Father. Here is our 
safety, our protection, our salvation. If we turn again to Isaac 
as a type we should observe that he furnishes one of the many 
double types so often misunderstood because of failure to see the 
double aspect. He furnishes a type of both the Son of God— 
Jesus, and of the sons of God found in all His children. There 
are in him three things: (1) Self-surrender, (2) the responsibility 
of sonship, (3) the recompense of obedience. All of this is brought 
out most fully in the story of the sacrifice of Isaac which we 
should now consider. 


95. His Sacrifice. The incidents and teachings connected 
with this sacrifice justify our most careful study. It was a test 
of Abraham’s faith. God had told him that in Isaac his seed 
should be called and that he should be for the blessing of all the 
nations. Abraham did not understand this command of God, but 
he set out to the appointed place with the full purpose of carrying 
out the divine instructions. This he did because he believed that, 
if it became necessary, God would raise Isaac from the dead 
in order to fulfill His promise. 


96. A Type of Jesus. On the way, as this father and son 
neared the place where God had appointed to test Abraham’s 
faith and devotion, Isaac discovered that they had the wood and 
the fire, but had no offering. He made inquiry about it and 
Abraham replied to him “Jehovah will provide himself a lamb 
for a burnt offering” (chapter 22:8). He spoke more wisely 
than he knew. For when Isaac was bound on the altar and his 
father was just ready to slay him, Jehovah spoke to him and stayed 


THE STORY OF ISAAC 119 


his action. Then Abraham saw in the thicket near by a ram 
which in His providence God had provided! He then offered 
the ram, allowing Isaac to go free. Let it be noticed that the 
Scripture says that “Abraham went and took the ram, and of- 
fered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abra- 
ham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; as it is this 
day. In the mount of Jehovah it shall be provided” (Gen. 
22 :13-14). 

Now Abraham named the place Jehovah-jireh because of the 
act of God in providing him with a substitute sacrifice. ‘The 
meaning of the word must be taken in part from the circum- 
stances of its use as a name for the place. It may and does 
mean that God will provide for all of our needs. But it means 
far more. God had just provided a substitute sacrifice by which 
Isaac was saved from death except in type. From this blessing 
Abraham saw the universal truth of a substitute sacrifice of “the 
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” (Jno. 
V:29). : | 

Here we have one of those double types which God uses to 
remedy the necessary defects in all figures used to set forth 
Christ and His work. .We must be careful to. let the whole les- 
son, as a type, comprehend all. that was placed upon the altar. 
(1) We see the only son of Abraham as a type of the divine 
sacrifice. In obedience to his father’s will Isaac willingly (for 
he was not just a small boy and compelled to be bound) became 
the burnt offering on the altar which indeed was a type of. the 
cross. (2) There is found the ram which God in His providence 
had provided. This represents the substitutionary fact and pur- 
pose of the burnt offering thereby showing that like the sin of- 
fering it has a double meaning and extends its purpose in both 
a Godward and manward direction. (3) Isaac is spared. In this 
we have the figure of the resurrection. The author of Hebrews 
discussing this matter said “Accounting that God was able to 
raise him up, even from the dead; from whence he did also in a 
figure receive him back” (Heb. 11:19). As a type, he was sur- 
rendered by his father and had himself submitted himself to 
death. Resurrection can restore him from the flames of the altar 


120 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 





and in a figure he was received from the dead when the ram 
was substituted. 

This figure of the resurrection is very important, for it is to 
the resurrected Christ that all the events that follow typically 
refer. It is from Jesus resurrected just as from Isaac who had 
been offered that all the world receives blessing. While the type 
is not at this place extended into a portrayal of the efficacy of 
the cross, the life of Issac after this is a wonderful shadow of 
our Lord. The incidents of the next chapters are more interest- 
ing. First there is recorded (chapter 23) the death of Sarah 
his mother. She died immediately after he was resurrected 
(in a figure). So did Israel pass away when Christ came ac- 
cording to the flesh and died and rose again. It was but a little 
while after Jesus was resurrected until the Jews at Jerusalem lost 
their genealogy and were scattered so that they lost their national 
identity. It is just here that the consideration of a bride comes 
in and Abraham secures Rebekah for him—a story of much 
significance which we must study a little later. 


97. A Type of the Believer. Here let us turn back to con- 
sider our former suggestion that Isaac was not only a type of 
Jesus, but of us who are the sons of God. This is especially true 
as represented in the substitution of the ram for Isaac. Here 
we see Jehovah-jireh and come upon the doctrine of redemption 
or deliverance in Christ Jesus. In this position Isaac occupies 
the condition of the lost sinner, or, better, of a lost world upon 
whom the divine sentence of death has passed. He is ready to 
lose his life, and just as the lost are helpless, is utterly helpless 
to save himself, being already bound. No escape was possible 
for him unless Jehovah shall intervene. But this is just what 
happened. When all earthly hope was done, action was stayed 
by the word of God and behold there was found in a near-by 
thicket a ram already prepared for a substitute. Whereupon, 
Isaac was allowed to go free and the ram sacrificed in his stead. 
This all reminds us of the Scripture statement “I have found a 
ransom” (Job 33:24). God had provided a substitute sacrifice 
and Abraham in recognition of that fact named the place. 


This view of the substitutionary element of the offering well 
illustrates the redemptive work of Christ. When the sinner was 


THE STORY OF ISAAC 121 


Nt 


without hope or help the Lord laid upon Jesus all of our infirmi- 
ties. He came and died in our stead and because of His death we 
escape death. Let us also hold in mind that as in the sacrifice 
of the ram, it was God that provided Jesus our sacrifice and that 
- without Him we must suffer eternal death just as Isaac would 

have died but for the ram that died in his place. This is truly 
the New Testament teaching of the sacrificial and substitutionary 
work of Jesus on Calvary. It has in it the very heart of the gos- 
pel truth—that Jesus was made sin for us and died in our place 
that He is “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world” and that “by His stripes we are healed.” 

Here then we have all the elements of Christ’s redemptive work 
on the cross; there is death both as an acceptable offering unto 
the Father, and as a substitute for the sinner. The father was 
pleased and Himself provided the ultimate victim. But here is 
also substitution. Nor can we ever dispense with the doctrine of 
salvation by a substitute. Once more we have the resurrection 
without which all else is in vain. What group of words and 
thoughts. Death, the sinner’s hope; substitution, the means of the 
sinner’s release; resurrection, the proof of His complete triumph ; 
a liberated life. Isaac is alive and free from the death which 
threatened him. What a picture of all the important features of 
salvation is all this. 


His Marriage. 


98. Abraham Secures Isaac a Wife. We come now upon 
the story of the marriage of Isaac (chapter 24). Abraham, his 
father, as was the custom of their time, provided for his son a 
suitable marriage. The details of this marriage are recorded in the 
twenty-fourth chapter of our book. Abraham had grown old 
and Sarah his wife had died. He now sends his most trusted 
and responsible servant to the country of his kindred to secure 
a wife for his only son, Issac. This servant after receiving strict 
instructions and after the most solemn promise that he would 
never take Isaac back to the land from whence he came 
and that he would not secure him a bride from any other than his 
own kindred, set out on his important errand. This servant was 


122 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


a very devout man and all the time sought divine leadership so 
that God might, in reality, select the bride He desired for his 
master’s son. 

By a very simple circumstance he decided that Rebekah, the 
daughter of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, was the choice of Jehovah. 
He, therefore, secured an invitation to spend the night in the 
home and while there secured the consent of the damsel and 
of her mother and brother that she should go with him and be- 
come Isaac’s wife. He told them of the prosperity of Abraham 
and of his son and gave them gifts as tokens of the truth and 
sincerity of his story. On the following. morning she departed 
with him, riding on the camel which had been brought along for 
that purpose. Immediately upon their arrival at the home of 
Abraham, she was happily married to Isaac. Everywhere this 
story shows forth the simple faith of this most religious of ail 
the families of that ancient time. It shows how they attached 
to every ordinary matter of family life a religious significance and 
how they tried in all things to have the leadership and blessing 
of Jehovah. 

Moreover, it is all the doing of the father. Abraham saw that 
a wife was needful for his son and set about securing her for 
him. He prescribed all of the conditions, indicating what char- 
acter of woman she should be and whence she should come. He 
also sent his own servant to seek her out and sent along gifts 
that would indicate the sincerity of his proposal and induce her 
to accept the offer. In all this we have the exact figure of God 
the Father seeking a bride for Jesus. God initiates it all. He 
sends out His Holy Spirit and along with Him His disciples to 
plead for a lost world to accept Jesus and be saved. And what 
blessings He does bestow upon those who accept His offer and 
become the children of God by faith! 


99. Rebekah’s Faith. The position of the young woman 
is also highly instructive. She is an absolute stranger to the 
man whom she is asked to marry. She knows nothing of his 
surroundings or his suitability for a husband except what she 
learns from the servant of Abraham who seeks her consent 
to marriage. She had not even been acquainted with the servant 


THE STORY OF ISAAC 123 


who is making the appeal. Moreover, to accept the offer she 
will be required to go with the man to a strange country. She 
must give up both her own people—her loved ones—and all the 
scenes of her youth and must set out for another and unknown 
land. She must join herself to new people and make new 
friends. This is to cast into the one decision her whole future 
happiness and to risk in it her entire future interest and well-be- 
ing. It is an act of faith by which she involves everything and 
trusts it to one of whom she has only heard. 


Now how like a man becoming a Christian is all this! We 
must trust ourselves and all of our future to one whom we have 
not seen. Indeed, though not having seen Jesus, we nevertheless 
learn to love Him. How marvelous! We hear the message of 
the gospel—how he loves us and how He is prepared to save us 
from all wrath and destruction. We are shown also the working 
of the Father in it all. We are given evidences of the sincerity 
of Jesus who proposes to save us and are urged to accept Him. 
Like Rebekah, we must accept Him without ever having seen 
Him. Indeed, like her, we are never to see Him until we reach 
His home—until we reach Heaven where He is. It is then that 
we are to see Him as He is and be satisfied. Here, again, is the 
place of faith in the plan of human redemption—“The just shall 
live by faith’ (Hab. 2:4). By such an act of faith we show 
our own sincerity of purpose. Like Rebekah, we must rest every- 
thing on Him. ‘Then, too, by faith we honor Him who seeks to 
save us. We thereby acknowledge our belief in His integrity 
and in His ability to keep His word. We so fully believe it that 
we risk our destiny upon Him. That is faith. But that is not 
easy to do. It was not for Rebekah. Nor is it without hindrance. 
Her kindred sought to have her stay with them for a while. So 
are we hindered in our efforts to turn to Christ. Satan and the 
world will endeavor to delay us. There must be resolution and 
decision on our part as on the part of Rebekah. Others could 
not decide for her. It was her personal affair. She had all the 
responsibility, but decided. 


100. Means of Getting Her to Isaac’s Home. It should al- 
so be noted that Abraham had provided a way to carry her from 


124 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 





her home to that of Isaac. The servant carried along ten camels — 
and she rode upon one of them as they journeyed back. Then, 
too, she followed the man. She not only had furnished her the 
means of transportation, but had a faithful guide to lead the way. 
This again is the exact situation with one who trusts Christ. We 
are not put upon our own strength. We are not required to fur- 
nish the means to reach Heaven, nor do we go to Heaven in 
our own strength. We are to be carried there. God has provided 
a sufficient grace and himself undertakes the whole task of 
bringing us safely to Jesus in our heavenly home. He also fur- 
nishes us with a competent guide who goes before us in the way. 
And note further that the same one who came in search to Rebek- 
ah was also the one who led her on her way to meet Isaac. He 
was well-acquainted with the way having so recently traversed 
it as He came in search of her. And what is more, God had 
exercised a providential guidance of him on the way to seek her. 
It is even so in the matter of our salvation. God’s Holy Spirit 
has been sent into the world to lead men to accept Jesus as Savior 
and, when the accept Him, the same blessed Spirit becomes 
their guide to direct all of their ways. 


101. Wisdom of Her Acceptance. This is our great com- 
fort and blessing or our deep sorrow and final failure. How sad 
indeed would have been the spectacle, if by any means Rebekah 
had declined to accept the gracious invitation to become the wife 
of Isaac. She would have gone down in history as a momumen- 
tal blunderer. She would have been known as a woman who 
had an opportunity to link her name with all the highest things 
and for all time, but failed. Here would have been a mistake 
and a lack of foresight that could never have been forgotten or 
excused. In the same way every unsaved man has a chance to 
join his destiny with that of Christ and thereby with all that is 
best in time and eternity. And whoever fails to accept Christ as 
Savior will write his name in the eternal list of colossal blunderers. 
and can never through all eternity recover the loss which he will 
sustain thereby. 


But we also blunder and bring upon ourselves sorrow and 
failure, if we do not accept the means of Grace which God has 


THE STORY OF ISAAC 125 





provided for our safety and support in our journey to our new 
home. Whenever we try to walk in our strength to do the tasks 
that are ours; whenever we fail to avail ourselves of the divine 
help offered us at all times, we bring shame upon ourselves and 
defeat upon our cause. It is not safe for us to discard God’s 
strength and try to walk alone. Futhermore, let us not forget 
our heavenly guide. The Holy Spirit is available for us and will 
guide us into all truth. And whenever we do not follow Him we 
are certain to suffer injury and loss. Rebekah had, so far as our 
record goes, no unhappy incidents during her entire journey. 
In like manner we as Christians may have a happy and prosper- 
ous pilgrimage here below, if only we will rely upon God’s 
bounteous grace and fully follow our divine guide. Whoever 
trusts Christ may be sure of a safe journey to His heavenly home. 
God, His Father, through His Spirit will see that we get there. 


102. Her Reception by Isaac. The readiness with which she 
was received when she arrived is a matter for meditation. Isaac 
was out in the field and seemed to have been on the lookout for 
her coming. He at least discovered their coming immediately, and 
as soon as the servant reported to him, Rebekah was accepted 
and at once became his wife. There was not any trouble about 
her acceptance. In this there is much joy for us in our relation 
to Jesus our Savior. We will receive a ready welcome and will 
have no trouble getting in when we get to Heaven. Jesus under- 
stands all the efforts that have been made to win us to Himself 
and knows also all of the conditions and oppositions we face when 
we turn to Him. But everyone who shall make the great venture 
and trust Him will be welcomed when he arrives. The Groom 
will be glad to welcome his bride who has risked all for Him. 
And if Jesus welcomes us so will His Father and all Christians 
will have entrance into the everlasting joys of Heaven and that 
without any difficulty. Then let not the Christian be anxious. 
Jesus will not only be willing to receive us, but is anxious to 
have us there as is indicated in the last petition of His intercessory 
‘prayer for us. There He asked the Father that we might be with 
Him and behold His glory (Jno. 17:24). 


103. Another Thing is Important. She was not only re- 
ceived, but at once became the object of his love and a source of 


126 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


comfort to him. And what manifestations of love to us we may 
expect when we get to Heaven! If He would do so much for 
us as He has already done and that while we are here in our weak- 
ness; Heaven alone can reveal the depths of devotion, which He 
will then manifest toward us. When we are finally with Him 
in His home above, He will no doubt give us tokens of His love 
more glorious than we have ever yet hoped for. 


104. A Blessing to Isaac. Then, too, Rebekah became a 
source of comfort to Isaac. This suggestion, when we refer it 
to our parallel relation to Christ, thrills one’s heart with joy. 
What more could Christians want than to know that in Heaven 
we are to be a source of happiness to Jesus our Savior. Always 
the devoted Christian wants to bring honor to the name of 
Christ and for that we strive while here on the earth. We desire 
to be “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph. 1:6). 
But to feel that we are needed by Him and that in us the joy of 
Jesus is to be increased, lifts one into the ecstacy of delight. 
One’s heart leaps with joy at the thought of being able to contrib- 
ute something to the happiness of Him who has done all things 
for us. One almost wishes that time would speed along and that 
one might soon come into the presence of the Lord and behold 
His joy as well as His glory. 


105. All for Isaac. And now finally, let us consider that 
this whole marriage was prepared for the sake of Isaac. Rebe- 
kah secured her place and standing in the family of Abraham 
because of Isaac. She was loved along with Isaac because he 
loved her and thereby she became heir with him of all that his 
father possessed. Just so it is with the sinner who accepts Jesus. 
He becomes heir of God and joint heir with Christ. He is taken 
into the family of God and is loved and honored and respected 
because Jesus the Son is loved and honored. Abraham bestowed 
upon Rebekah the same love as that with which he had loved his 
son. And all the expense and effort put forth to win her was 
not so much because of her value or for her glory, but for the 
sake of Isaac. So it is with our salvation. Here we are again 
reminded that, much as God loves us and much as He did to 


|THE STORY OF ISAAC 127 





save us, our value was not the main consideration. For the hope 
of the lost world is dependent upon what God has planned’ 
for His Son Jesus. Everything done for us is because of Him. 
We pray in His name and our salvation and preservation and_ 
future bliss are all for His sake. We shout glory to His name’ 
now and in the world to come we shall sing “Unto Him that loved 
us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath 
made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be 
glory and dominion for ever and ever.” (Rev. 1:5-6). 


As hinted above, all of this occurred after Isaac was “in a 
figure” resurrected. It suggests how the bride of Jesus is now 
being prepared for the resurrected Christ. And the work of 
the servant (probably Eliezer) is fitting pattern of the Holy 
Spirit who came to begin His work after Jesus had died and 
risen again. ‘The gifts he carried and bestowed upon Rebekah. 
are as the “earnest of the Spirit” which we have now as the 
token of our Heavenly possession in Jesus. They are as jewels 
of the Father put on us His chosen ones. 


Final Scenes in His Life. 


106. In the Land of the Philistines. The final scenes in 
the life of Isaac are very striking. ‘They have to do with his 
sojourn in the land of the Philistines (chapter 26). One at 
once recalls that these people later were the great enemies of 
Israel. At the close of the history of the Judges she is under 
captivity to them. Isaac is therefore in the land of the uncircum- 
cised, the unregenerate enemies of the Lord. It was of course 
only a “so journing” or “lodging.” It was only temporary and 
not a permanent abiding place for the child of God. In such 
a place there is danger. In such a place God’s child, though he 
do it unconsciously, will, always assume a false attitude with re- 
ference to the church. But still worse, He is likely in such a 
place, to commit gross and known evil. Isaac falsified about his 
wife as had Abraham before him. Being in a false position he 
became false. He denied his own wife and subjected her to 
shame. In this we are disgusted. It was both cowardly and 
base. But his wife was as we have seen, a type of the church and 


128 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 
pasha ost ical rama ci Mele A a PE TIS PIE SNES 


he proves false, as a type of Jesus her husband. Only a weak or 
false one would thus deny her, but Jesus, who is neither weak 
nor false, will never deny His bride (the church) and humiliate 
her. And we like Isaac, when we go off after the world, deny and 
disgrace the church and the Christ we represent. 


107. Abraham’s Similar Conduct. Precisely this is what 
Abraham did when he left Bethel which means “the house of 
God” and went down into Egypt which represents a lost world 
(chapter 12:7-20). While there he did not have a single altar 
to God. He did not worship. He had to return to Bethel and 
begin right where he had broken off in order to be restored to 
communion with God. This is to suggest a right attitude toward 
the church, the bride, which is a royal priesthood whose highest 
purpose as such is to worship. And much the same is true of 
Isaac when he went down to Gerar. He gave up one well (a 
type of the word) after another until he came to Beer-Sheba 
which means the “well of an oath” and refers to the place of re- 
newed attitude toward the covenant of God. The scene closes 
with his altar at Beer-Sheba and with even the Philistines ac- 
knowledging that Jehovah is with the man of faith. 


This story of Isaac’s failure and final superiority is very in- 
structive. On the one hand it suggests (especially because re- 
peated by both Abraham and Isaac) a sin to which the believer 
must be especially prone. It is the danger of looking to the 
world and compromising our true relation to Christ and His 
church. On the other hand it shows how, when we come to the 
right attitude, God fulfills His promise “I will make them of the 
synagogue of satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do 
lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy 
feet, and to know that I have loved thee” (Rev. 3:9). Here He 
led Abimeleck and his people to seek Isaac’s friendship. 


108. Lessons of Value. Taken together the story of Abra- 
ham going to Egypt and that of Isaac sojourning at Gerar with 
their sins while there brings us four lessons of value. (1) The 
trials of God’s people are about the same for all times. If there is 


THE STORY OF ISAAC 129 





a famine for Abraham there is also one for his son Isaac. (2) 
All of God’s people have about the same weakness. Isaac when 
put under the same temptation falls into the same sin which his 
father before him had committed. All of this teaches us that we 
do well not to subject ourselves to conditions and enter places 
that we know to have caused good men to sin. (3) While Isaac 
lived among those people they hated him, which teaches us the 
lesson that so long as we live the low life of conformity to others 
who are not true worshipers, we reap sorrow for ourselves and 
fail to influence them for good. We thereby destroy the value of 
our testimony. (4) But when Isaac got to Beer-Sheba and took 
his rightful place as a worshiper, God refreshed his own soul 
and made him influential with others. Here we learn that the 
true way for us to influence the hearts of others is to properly 
separate ourselves from them. In doing this we assume the pro- 
per attitude toward God as His peculiar people and He in turn 
touches the hearts of others and moves them to follow us be- 
cause they see that Jehovah is with us. 


109. A Warning. Another matter of interest and warning 
to us is the way in which Isaac persisted in desiring to see Esau 
have the place of authority in the family. God at the first had 
made His selection of Jacob to be the family representative and 
had said “The elder shall serve the younger.” In spite of this 
Isaac persisted down to old age in his desire to put that blessing 
upon Esau. Here is a fine illustration of how good and devout 
people often have great difficulties in yielding their will to that of 
God. It is often hard for us to consent to allow God to have 
His way with us and ours. 


But with all this Isaac is portrayed as a good man. He was 
quiet and retiring in nature, but lacked the force and energy of 
Abraham. He was, however, devoutly reverent toward God and 
wherever he went set up an altar and worshiped. He had great 
faith in God and was rewarded with a renewal of the covenant 
blessing. He was a fit type of Jesus in being an only son, in 
being fully subjected to his father’s will and in being a medium 
of divine blessing for all the world. 


CHAPTER IX 


The Story of Jacob 


Questions and Themes for Study. (1) What are the facts connected 
with his birth? 25:24-26. (2) How did Jacob secure the rights of the 
first-born? 25:29-33. (3) How did Rebekah assist Jacob? 27:5-17. (4) 
Was Jacob responsible for the deceit? 27:29, 20, 24. (5) Enumerate the 
blessings wished for Jacob 27:27-29. (6) What evil effect came to 
Jacob because of this deception? 27:41-45. (7) What dream and prom- 
ises and discovery about God did Jacob have at Bethel? 28:12-17. (8) 
What did this vision cause Jacob to do? 28:18-22. (9) What facts are 
given concerning the securing of his wife and children? 29:1-30:24. 
(10) What bargain did he make with Laban and how did it turn out? 
30:25-43. (11) What excuse did Jacob give for leaving Haran? 31:2, 
5-7, 13. (13) What covenant did Jacob and Laban make? 31:44-49. 
(13) Is there evidence that Jacob’s disposition had changed? 32:9-12. 
(14) What are the facts of Jacob’s struggle at Jabbok? 32:22-33. (15) 
How did Esau treat Jacob? 33:1-16. (1) What did Jacob do when he 
got to Bethel? 35:2-4. 


Jacob the Chosen of God. 


110. His nature and Discipline. We come now to the 
study of Jacob who, as has been already indicated, was a chosen 
instrument of the divine will. His life is so interwoven with that 
of Joseph, his distinguished son, who soon became the leader, that 
it is difficult to separate them in the discussion. As a man, Jacob 
was clever and far-sighted. He was willing to employ any means, 
either honorable or dishonorable, to accomplish his purpose or 
to gratify his ambition. It took many years of divine providence 
to lead him to become fully submissive to the divine will and ready 
to depend upon God instead of following his own desires and 
leaning upon his own strength and wisdom. 

Like several other of God’s chosen leaders, the name of Jacob 
was later changed, and he became known as Israel. ‘These two 
names, Jacob and Israel, furnish us the key to all of his history. 


THE STORY OF JACOB 131 


The long years of discipline were necessary because he was 
Jacob. They were the necessary years of righteous government 
which would chasten his soul and issue in rich blessings. They 
changed him from Jacob, the supplanter, to Israel who in his 
weakness had power with both God and man. They provided a 
holy discipline of God that in him bear fruit in a moral life. 


111. Three Divisions of his Life. His whole life divides it- 
self into three parts. (1) In his own land. (2) Exiled in Padan- 
aram. (3) Returning again to his own land. These correspond 
to the three great periods of Israel’s national history. The first 
period seems to compare with the whole period of their inspired 
history as chosen people of God. He is particularly chosen ac- 
cording to the sovereign will of Jehovah. There is much of sin 
and lack of faith—much of divine blessing and chastening—in 
the story of this period. The second part—that when he was at 
Padan-aram—probably corresponds to the history of Israel since 
the dispersion. In all that time he enjoys no further or new rev- 
elation from God. During this time he is enslaved and trampled 
upon, but is nevertheless preserved and grown in power and 
wealth which bears witness to the love and care of God and illus- 
trates the condition of Israel in all of our period since the begin- 
ning of the Christian era. The third period in which he returns 
to his own land after growing into a large family suggests the final 
return of that remnant of Israel which is known only in prophecy. 


112. The First-born Rejected. As has already been indica- 
ted, Jacob was chosen of God to be the one in whom the family 
blessing should be accomplished. He illustrates again the con- 
stant order of Genesis which is to reject the first-born. Cain, the 
first-born of Adam, was rejected and another accepted. Ishmael 
was rejected and Isaac chosen as the instrument of God. Here 
Esau the older was rejected and Jacob the younger granted the 
family blessing. Later on Reuben falls into sin and deprives 
himself of the birth-right in Jacob’s family, and Joseph became 
chief. In all the cases it seems clear that there is a human reason 
for the choice except in that of Jacob who, before his birth, was 
the elect of God. In all of it we seem to see in operation the 


132 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


divine law “first that which is natural and afterward that which 
is spiritual” (1 Cor. 15:46). 


Jacob Exiled from Home. 


113. Rejected Because Blessed of God. ‘The first incident 
in Jacob’s life that has to do with our purpose is his reception of 
the paternal blessing and the consequent hatred of Esau and his 
exile from home. ‘To fully appreciate this we must remind our- 
selves that he had been chosen of God for the very position 
which the reception of the parental blessing acknowledged. It 
will be seen then that he was hated of Esau and was forced away 
from home because he had received just what God had planned 
for him to receive. This is not to commend Jacob and Rebekah 
for their conduct in the matter, but simply to state a condition. 
God had said he should rule over Isaac’s house, that Esau should 
be subordinate to Jacob. Esau was unwilling to it and rejected 
him. 

114. Illustrates Jesus and the Jews. In all this is a parallel 
to the way the Jews rejected and hated Jesus. He was appointed 
of God to be their Savior and Lord. But they hated and rejected 
Him. We_should note that it was their wickedness of heart that 
caused them to take this position. In this they are like Esau 
who is called a “profane person.” At the age of forty he married 
two Canaanite wives. This is the normal result of that profanity 
that could esteem his birthright at the value of a mess of pot- 
tage. By marrying the women of Canaan he disregarded the 
divine will and showed the evil condition of his heart. These 
Canaanitish wives fully separated him from the blessing, show- 
ing him to be unworthy of it. The forty years before this mar- 
riage may have to do with the period of probation and suggests 
that Israel had had ample opportunity and then fully rejected 
Jesus. She was therefore without excuse, because she might 
have accepted Him, if she would. 


115. Secured His Family While Away. ‘Then, too, while 
Jacob was away, because of that hatred, he secured his family 
and afterward came back and was received by his brother Esau. 


THE STORY OF JACOB 133 


In this same way the Jews refused to accept Jesus as their 
divinely appointed Savior. He departed and now, while being 
rejected by them, He is securing His Gentile bride. When the 
time is fully come the Jews will also receive Him. If this sug- 
gestion seems far-fetched, one needs but to read Stephen’s ad- 
dress in the seventh chapter of Acts to see how he uses the case 
of Joseph and Moses and others and shows how the Jews are 
doing Jesus as they have always done God’s messengers—first 
rejected them, and later accepting them, thereby arguing that 
-they would yet accept Jesus. 


116. Experience at Bethel. If now we follow him in his 
wandering we shall find some instructive incidents. And first of 
all let us consider his experience at Bethel when he slept out 
in the open and saw the vision of the ladder. In this story 
he illustrates the position of a lost. sinner, a wanderer in a 
strange place, and the ladder illustrates the work of Jesus. 
It is a means of communication between the holy God who 
stands above it and the outcast sinner who lies lonely and 
heart-sick, conscious of his sin, at its foot. Jesus seems to 
refer to this symbolism when He speaks of the angels “as- 
cending and descending upon the Son of Man” (Jno.: 
51). Anyhow, Jesus is the medium through which God does 
communicate with us and by which we may reach Him. 
Moreover the sinner who sees Jesus as his Mediator between 
himself and God will find peace and happiness and hope just 
as Jacob did here. Just consider—a ladder reaching up to 
Heaven! How it pictures Jesus by whom God has come 
down into all the depths of human need and by whom He 
_also brings us up into His own presence in peace. Jesus is 
not only the way by which God comes down to us, but also 
by which we ascend to God and Heaven. It is no wonder that 
Jacob erected here a sanctuary of worship which became 
sacred to all the Hebrews for all the future. 


117. Disclosure of Grace. Here let us observe the great 
disclosure of divine grace. Jacob was a sinner—a poor de- 
ceiver. And for the blessings that were to be vouch-safed to 


134 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


him he had no claim according to birth. He had nothing 
upon which to stand either by reason of birth or character 
or practice. He had nothing upon which to stand except 
upon God’s pure, free purpose and sovereign grace. And just, 
on this account God’s message to him as He spoke through 
means of the ladder (Gen. 28:13-15), was one of grace in 
which He undertook upon His own part to bless Jacob. There 
was no condition or if in it. As Jacob lay there he was un- 
uble to assume responsibility. He was in a position of deep- 
est helplessness and need. He was alone at night in a strange 
place. Behind him was Esau threatening his life and all that 
because of his evil conduct; before him, he knew not what. 
It was a time for him to think on his sins and realize his dis- 
tressful situation. In such a position God gave him a revela- 
tion of the fullest, richest and most unconditional grace. 
Here, again, the ladder became a figure of Christ, because it 
was given primarily for the purpose of revealing to a help- 
less sinner the wonders of a divine grace. 


But grace does far more than to simply promise. It follows 
Jacob into all the ways of life. He did not, as we should sup- 
pose, learn at Bethel how to fully rely upon grace. He went 
on his old way bargaining for his successes. He still tried 
to merit his success. He leaned on his own plans and devices 
to help him out of every difficulty. Thus we find him trading 
with Laban (30:25-43), and when he is returning to meet 
Esau, he sends forward a gift—no longer relying upon God, 
but seeking by himself to appease his brother (Gen. 32:13-21). 
That God should have borne with such a man is proof of the 
marvels of His grace. It shows how. grace begins with us 
at the very lowest place and continues to follow and bless us 
in spite of our weaknesses. If then, we discover, after we 
have become Christians, that we still have weakness or even 
personal vileness, we must not let it destroy our peace. The 
blessings we are promised in Christ, like those given to Jacob 
in the covenant of the ladder are vouchsafed to us by the 
nature and purpose of God and not by our perfections. It 
is a covenant of grace and assures us that God will follow us 


THE STORY OF JACOB 135 


with mercy even though we are imperfect. It does not license 
us to do evil, but does encourage us in our conflict with weak- 
ness and sin. 


While it is not primarily within our purpose to discuss the 
years he spent with Laban, having already indicated that it 
had a resemblance to the time of the dispersion of the Jews, 
it may be well to indicate that his experience there has much 
in common with our career and also that of Jesus. As for us, 
it shows how, while loving us, God in grace chastens us and 
how we most surely reap what we sow. He had been a de- 
ceiver and suffered terrible deception. The very names of 
his children became a permanent evidence of this time of 
humiliation. He was enslaved as well as an outcast and that 
in a country far from home. 


Jacob’s Return and Reconciliation With Esau 


118. He Plans to Meet Esau. Another scene of deep in- 
terest to us is found in connection with his return to his own 
land and with his reconciliation with Esau his brother. He 
was still the same self-reliant and self-sufficient man he had 
been all the time. He felt that he could appease the wrath 
of his brother by means of his own kindness. He sent for- 
ward his servants to meet Esau and in the message he bore 
he calls himself Esau’s servant and Esau his lord. He is here 
at the same old game. He is trying to manage Esau. But 
it seems a long way from the revelation to God that we would 
expect him to occupy. After a while the messengers return 
with the news that Esau was coming to meet him bringing 
four hundred men with him. Jacob was greatly alarmed and 
began to make some plans of his own by dividing his com- 
pany so that at least some may be saved. 


And let us note that he made his plans without praying. 
He did not properly depend upon God. It is true that, after 
he had made his plans, he prayed for the divine protection. 
That is the trouble with much of his life and ours also. Our 
own planning and prayer to God do not often go well to- 
gether. We are apt to depend at least in part upon our plan 
when we should lean exclusively upon God. We may be ask- 


136—GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


ing God to protect our plan when we should be seeking for 
God’s plan. And to show that, although he had asked God 
to deliver him from his brother, he was not satisfied to risk 
it, he continued to make other plans at once. He decided he 
could win him with a present. He would undertake his old 
trick of trading. It would be humorous, if it were not so 
serious, to hear him in one breath pray, “Deliver me, I pray 
thee from the hands of my brother, from the hand of Esau,” 
and in the next breath say, “I will appease him with a present’ 
(chapter 32:20). Apparently the last thought was the more 
important for him. He seems to trust more in a few cattle 
than in Jehovah. Here is an important lesson for us all—not 
to trust our own divices. 


119. A Man Wrestles With Him. This is Jacob’s greatest 
sin and difficulty. He needed to be brought to the end of his 
own management and to learn how to perfectly and fully 
trust God. But he, like the rest of us, could never get to the 
end of his own plans until he came to the end of himself— 
to see his own helplessness. And this was about to happen 
to Jacob. When he had finished all of his prudent plans and 
had sent forward his present, the Scripture narrative says 
“Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him un- 
til the break of day” (chapter 32:24). This is the very turning 
point of Jacob’s extraordinary life. He was now alone with 
God and could hope to gain a true knowledge of himself and 
of his ways. And that is just what Jacob did while alone at 
the brook Jabbock. 


“There wrestled a man with him”. And note that it was 
not Jacob wrestling with the man, but the man wrestling with 
Jacob. This can not be a case showing Jacob’s power in 
prayer. It is very different for me to say I wrestled with a 
man and aman wrestled with me. In the former I would be 
striving to secure something from him. In the latter he would 
be trying to secure something from me. In this case the pur- 
pose was to reach or overcome Jacob and Jacob stood his 
ground and fought back. God was trying to show him how 
weak and helpless he was, but he held out against the divine 


THE STORY OF JACOB 137 


dealing. He spent the night fighting God or His representa- 
tive. How significant! How dangerous! 


120. The Broken Thigh and Jacob’s Prayer. Failing to sub- 
due him otherwise, God touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh 
and at once this thigh was out of joint. He found his strength 
gone. He was a poor cripple wrestling without strength. He 
now perceived that supernatural power had touched him and 
that he was perfectly helpless. He is alone with God now 
and seeing his strength all gone he turns for the first time 
to say “I will not let thee go” (Gen. 32:26). For the first 
time he learns the full meaning of prayer. Now he really 
wrestles with God “in prayer” instead of God wrestling with 
him to subdue him. He is clinging to God in an effort to 
secure the divine blessing. A new era has come in his life 
and from this time on he is a changed man. He is still bright 
and resourceful, but after this he is subdued and is serving 
the will of God. After this experience he met Esau in peace 
and went away assured of the divine favour. 


Here also, we see a man who had perhaps been long ago re- 
generated, but for all the long years had failed to know the 
joys of real prayer and of trusting God to make his successes 
for him. It took a great divine affliction to accomplish this ix 
him. Just this is the sad story of many of God’s childrea to- 
day. They live anxious and unhappy lives, constantly plan- 
ning and half-way praying, only to rise from prayer to try to 
walk in their own power. They have not learned to trust all 
to God. And. like Jacob, many of them must be brought low 
in suffering before they learn how to fully submit to the 
divine will and blessing, and before they can pray in a way 
to have power with God and with men. 


Concluding Suggestions. 


121. Always a Worshiper. Here we leave Jacob only to 
see him again in connection with Joseph who becomes the 
more prominent from this point of the story. The rest of his 
life was full of sorrow. His sons frequently deceived and 


138 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


took advantage of him as he had done his father and brother. 
For years he carried a broken heart because he thought Joseph 
was dead. Family disgrace overtook him and finally he came 
down to want, because of a famine, through which he found 
Joseph alive. Through all the years, however, after his ex- 
periences at Jabbock, he remained true to God. He is often 
found in the spirit and act of worship and often referred to 
the mercy of God that had been over him during his past life. 


122. Significance of the Change of His Name. That in- 
cident at Jabbock when his thigh, the strongest muscle of the 
body and that which indicates the strength of the physical 
man, was put completely out of joint, should bring us a lesson 
of abiding value. When thus he was without strength and 
could hold only in utter helplessness, God changed his name 
from Jacob (the supplanter) to Israel (Prince of God). Jacob, 
the supplanter, shows the depths to which God’s grace will go 
after a lost sinner and Israel, a prince of God, shows the 
heights to which the same grace will exalt that sinner. 
From the depths to the heights is the result of the redeeming 
work of God. Let Jacob’s experience, therefore, encourage all 
the lost and all those who would try to reach the lost. 


We should note also that it was then—after his name had 
been changed and he had become a prince of God and had 
“power with God and men” 32:28 that he prevailed over 
Ksau—a fact which was not, however, revealed until after 
they met. It is the eternal lesson that, if we are to reach men, 
we must go by the way of the grace of God and let his power 
flow through us. 


CHAPTER X 


The Stories About Joseph 


Questions. (1) What caused Joseph’s brethren to hate him? 
37:1-11. (2) What different plans did they think out and execute in 
their effort to put him away. 37:19-24, 28? (3) What means did 
they use in trying to cover up their crime? 37:31-33. (4) To what 
position did he rise as a slave? 39:1-6. (5) What led to Joseph’s im- 
prisonment and how did he fare as a prisoner? 39:7-23. (6) What 
skill brought him to the attention of Pharaoh? 40:12-15; 41:9. (7) 
How did Joseph interpret Pharaoh’s dreams? 41:17-32. (8) What 
did he advise Pharaoh to do? 41:33-36. (9) What tokens of Joseph’s 
appointment were given him? 41:41-45. (10) What provisions did 
Joseph make for the needs of the people? 41:48-49, 54-57. (11) 
How did he increase the wealth and power of Pharaoh? 47:20-26. (12) 
How did Joseph get to see Benjamin? 42:13-43:15. (13) How did 
he test his brethren’s love for Benjamin? 43:16-44:34. (14) What mes- 
sage did he send back to Canaan? 45:4-15. (15) What vision did 
Jacob have about the proposed move to Egypt? 46:1-4. (16) How was 
Jacob received in Egypt? 46:28-47:12. (17) What request did Jacob 
make of Joseph? 49:29-30. (18) How did Joseph treat his brethren 
after Jacob died? 50:20-21. (19) What prophecy did Joseph make be- 
‘fore his death? 50:24-25. 


Matters in General. 


123. The Story Familiar. More people are no doubt famil- 
iar with these stories than with any other section of the Old 
Testament. They are told in a style so beautiful and charming 
that it is felt by all. There is in them a literary power and unity 
that is remarkable. They are appreciated most of all because of 
their very great moral value. They are everywhere filled with 
ideals of integrity and truthfulness. The spirit of Joseph him- 
self is such as to draw one to him as a friend to a friend. He 1s 
always cheerful and uncomplaining and full of faith in God. 
adversity or mistreatment could destroy his ambitious purpose. 


140 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


Nor could he be put in any place but that through the divine provi- 
dence he became so valuable to others that he was soon recog- 
nized and promoted. For purposes of inspiration and encourage- 
ment this section will reward a frequent review of it. 


124. Principal Events of His Life. All the Material of the 
Biblical narrative may be grouped around the following principal 
great periods or events of his life. (1) His childhood, where we 
find hm petted and spoiled by his father, but ambitious and trust- 
worthy and yet hated by his brethren. (2) His sale to the 
Egyptians. Here we find him separated from his home and kin- 
dred and made a slave in Egypt. We are also shown his faithful- 
ness and the service which he rendered in such position. (3) 
_ His position as overseer. In this position he shows a remarkable 
faithfulness to his master and in pursuance of his duties met a 
very unusual and severe temptation, the rejection of which led 
to his unjust and long imprisonment. (4) His exaltation to the 
governorship of Egypt. This exaltation again was because of the 
blessing of God upon him and in order that he might serve the 
whole world in preparing it against the time of famine. In this 
work he changed the whole system of land tenure so that it was 
put under royal control. This story would also include his kind- 
ness to his father’s family and his provision for their preservation 
from famine. 


125. Important Elements of the Narrative.. Before taking 
them up one by one it is well for us to remember several elements 
that belong to this whole narrative. (1) There are many sudden 
and striking contrasts. Joseph is suddenly changed from a pet- 
ted and spoiled boy of the home to a friendless slave in Egypt; 
he steps up from slave to overseer; he quickly falls from over- 
seer of all his master’s house to a capital prisoner in the dungeon; 
he suddenly rises out of prison from the death cell to the position 
of governor of the most powerful empire of that age. (2) 
Joseph is the hero of usefulness or of service to others. His suc- 
cess is never based upon a miracle, nor is a miracle ever used 
to promote his interests unless it be his interpretation of a dream. 
He is honored and promoted because of this value to others. He 
shows a fine business sagacity in all places where he is placed. His 


THE STORIES ABOUT JOSEPH 141. 


promotions are won by his faithfulness and usefulness to those 
whom he served and never by means of armour or the conquests 
of power. Of all the characters of the Bible except Jesus, Joseph 
is the hero of human service. (3) The use of his position to 
advance the interests of others. This seems altogether out of 
harmony with the views of western students of society. ‘They 
would hardly think it right for him to so faithfully serve the in- 
terests of his master as he did while slave or overseer. They cer- 
tainly would not endorse the earnest way in which he promoted 
the interests of a heathen sovereign of Egypt by which he made the 
whole people permanent slaves. (4) The pathos and depth of 
feeling in the story. This is not surpassed in all literature and 
is especially manifest in the story of his relation to his brethren 
when they come down to Egypt. Pent up emotion tugs at one’s 
heart all the time as one reads of the anxiety of the brothers, of 
the fear of the father and of the burning affection of Joseph. The. 
spirit of forgiveness and the love of his humble kinsmen fill one 
with admiration. 


126. The Story Typical. Holding all these in mind it is 
now our purpose to call attention to the fact that much of this 
is typical of New Testament truth. We should hasten to remind 
ourselves that, if it should seem unsafe to count it typical, it is 
at least illustrative of much New Testament teaching. Almost 
all of the details have in them valuable suggestions. Indeed 
Joseph is perhaps more highly figurative of the Redeemer than 
is any other of the Old Testament characters. We may see 
the attitude of a wicked world toward Jesus pictured, also His 
spirit of forgiveness toward the wicked. Or we may see both 
His suffering and His exaltation exemplified. Much that 
reminds one both of the saved and of the unsaved may be found 
running through the entire narrative. ‘These and others are the 
suggestions we are to follow. ! 


Heeding the suggestion above—that it may be unsafe to count 
it all typical and remembering that there is in it a two-fold type 
—the one having to do with Christ and the other suggestive of 
the interests and hopes as well as the trials of the people of God— 
let us first consider the narrative in a way to give prominence to 


142 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 





the typical and then in somewhat story form try to find the many 
particular lessons and illustrations that seem to be in the story. 


127. The Strictly Typical Element. As a type the story 
divides itself into three district parts. 


(1) Joseph as a type of Jesus in relation to His brethren in 
ithe flesh (chapters 37-38). In this section several things are 
important. (1) We have a vision of supremacy (v. 2-11). He 
was a shepherd which marks him as a typical ruler (Ps, 23; 
Jno. 10). He was in company with the sons of the bond- 
maid, but was himself not of them. He was condemned or hated 
for three things—for his holiness (his separation from them), 
his testimony against them, and his dreams which announced his 
coming glory. All of this is applicable to Jesus in His relation 
to His brethren, the Jews. (2) He was sent on a mission of love 
to his brethren. His father sent him to his own. He went out 
from Hebron which means “company” or “confederation” and 
thus left the place of participation with his father. He went to 
Shechem meaning “shoulder” and signifies the place of subjec- 
tion to the yoke or the place of obedience. He did not find them 
at Shechem and went on to Dothan which means “law” or 
““Gmperial decrees’”—the decrees of man. (3) In Dothan they 
plot to kill him. They stripped him and sold him—first putting 
him in a pit without water that he might die. The bloody gar- 
ment became the evidence of his death. When they raised him 
out of the pit and sold him, he passed out of their sight and 
entered into another stage of relaton. 


This is all typical of Jesus. His Father sent Him on an errand 
«of love and mercy to His own brethren—the Jews. He left 
His place with the Father and came by way of the place of 
subjection and obedience to where they had discarded the spirit 
of the law and had made the law void by their “traditions.” In 
that place they plotted His death and killed Him after which He 
arose and ascended out of their sight and has not come back 
again to the Jews, but is now fulfilling His new relation as seen 
in the next section. 


(2) Joseph is a type of Jesus in relation to the Gentiles 
(chapters 39-41). This point will be more fully discussed later. 


THE STORIES ABOUT JOSEPH 143 


Here it is important to notice that Joseph is brought into rela- 
tion with the Gentiles where, after a period of humiliation, he is 
exalted. And when Pharaoh exalted him he named him 
“Zephenath-paneah” which means “The savior of the age’ or 
“Revealer of secrets.” How significant is this that his name 
should so fully represent Jesus. He was and is the Savior of all 
the ages and brings to us a knowledge of the mystery of the ages. 
Joseph, already in bondage, descends into deeper bondage—into a 
deeper prison to prove that he was master of everything there. 
So did Jesus, after coming to earth, being born of a woman and 
taking the form of a servant, go down into death and there 
gain possession of the keys of death and hell, and the grave. 
Joseph in prison, by his knowledge of dreams, became the inter- 
preter of life and death, telling one man he should die and another 
he should live and showing Pharoah how the whole world was 
to be kept alive in the coming years of famine. So also Jesus 
brought life and immortality to light and became for all men the 
interpreter of life and death, so that now all the world must de- 
pend for its “providential blessings” upon our rejected, risen and 
reigning Christ. 


(3) Joseph is a type of Jesus in His relation to restored Israel. 
(chapters 42-50). The going of Jacob and his family to Egypt 
and the reception which they received at the hands of Joseph 
speaks of a time when the Jews who rejected Jesus will come 
back to Him. They will yet return to Jesus and have God’s 
favour. ‘They will have their place in the land of Goshen which 
signifies “a place of the brightest light of an earthly glory.” This 
will be further amplified in the general discussion yet to follow, 


Difficulty in Attaining His Ambitions. 


128. Hated for His Dreams. We now come to a more 
general discussion and one in which there is no attempt to separate 
the purely typical from that which is only illustrative in nature 
And first of all let us consider the difficulty and opposition which 
he met in his effort to reach the position to which he aspired and 
which was purposed of God for him. To begin with we should 
recall how he had dreams of service to his family and of dom- 
inance over them. We should not forget that this was but his 


144 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


heart getting a vision of the divine purpose in him. As Jesus 
said “I must be about my Father’s business” (Lu. 2:49), so he 
felt in himself a divine impulse to become God’s instrument. For 
all this his brethren hated him and often spoke unkindly to him. 
But in these dreams he had a source of inspiration for his whole 
life. He no doubt thought of them often while undergoing his 
hardships and at once remembered them when he saw his brethren 
come to Egypt for corn. ‘These dreams like those of many a child 
were but the early manifestations of the divine purpose in him. 


All this is very like the attitude of men to Jesus. God had 
sent Him on a mission of kindness and mercy to them but they 
rejected Him and opposed Him and at last killed Him. In all 
of the steps taken by Joseph and the paths he trod, he reminds 
us of the way in which Jesus suffered. Joseph had no friends, 
neither did Jesus. At every point Joseph was opposed and was 
compelled to suffer wrong. ‘This was true in the very act of 
‘selling of him, and in the servitude to which he was exposed by the 
wife of his owner. For in this temptation there were the three 
‘elements of the temptations of Jesus. ‘Thus opposed and tempted 
and hated, and in spite of an effort to destroy him, he finally 
came to the place of exaltation and power to which God had 
planned for him to come. And how like Jesus was all this! 
He was apposed and persecuted and finally put to death, but 
triumphed over it all and is now exalted to the right hand of God 
on high. 


129. Faithful in All Things. And in the light of all this, 
this service and faithfulness remind one of the work of Jesus 
‘Who kept straight to His purpose all the time, even as did Joseph. 
Moreover, Joseph is faithful in every place where he is placed 
and is of value to those whom he serves. All his success is con- 
stantly attributed to God even as Jesus gives God the glory in 
all things. Then, too, he went about doing good to all he touched, 
just as Jesus brought constant blessing to the men among whom He 
lived. He did not cease to serve because he was suffering wrong. 
Moreover in it all he did not complain or whine. He was like 
Jesus who, like a sheep dumb before its shearers, opened not His 
‘mouth. He took it as a divine providence and resolved to be faith- 


THE STORIES ABOUT JOSEPH 145 


ful. And what is still more remarkable, he was altogether true to 
God. It has been said by some that there is not recorded of him 
that he did any wrong. More nearly than any other, therefore, 
he becomes a type of Christ in the perfect way in which he kept 
all of the will of God. And certainly he suffered because he would 
not sin. He is least of all worthy of suffering and yet suffered 
most of all. In this he shows us the suffering of Jesus, imposed 
because of the wickedness of others who were rebuked by His 
holiness. 


He Provides for His Enemies Who Now Accept Him 


130. Receives His Brethren. In the next place, let us ob- 
serve those who opposed him and see how they, afterwards, 
came to accept his kindness and indeed acknowledge him in 
the very position to which he aspired and for which they 
hated him. He had indicated that he expected that a time 
would come when the entire family would depend upon him 
and look upon him with respect—even do him homage. For 
these expressed ambitions his brothers had sold him into 
slavery (chapter 37; 8, 19, 20). But after his long periods 
of hardships, he came to a place of power and plenty while 
his brothers had come to a place of want and helplessness 
In this condition they came to him and received kindness. 
He furnished them what they needed to save them alive and 
also secured them a good home. 


131. Stephen Applies the Story. Stephen, in making his 
defense as recorded in the seventh chapter of Acts, uses this 
incident to illustrate the position of the Jews who had denied 
Jesus and crucified Him. Jesus came to them and made 
known to them His will and purpose to be their King and 
Savior. They opposed Him at every step and refused to ac- 
cept His grace, and what was still worse they killed Him. 
Now this compares with the spirit of Joseph’s brethren in 
selling him into Egypt. And they will now have to suffer 
for their folly a long period of spiritual darkness and then 
like those brethren will find it necessary at last to come back 


146 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


to Him and submit to His lordship. It suggests the great 
and difficult Bible teaching concerning the rejection of Jesus 
by the Jews and of their final return to Him. It is certainly 
a matter of deep joy to hope that this race—the chosen peo- 
ple—will yet accept Christ and it gives to them the joyous 
message that, like Joseph, He will receive them with forgive- 
ness, and blessing. 


132. Hope for Sinners. Here is also a message of hope for 
all lost sinners. Their sins were an offense to Him. They 
have despised and rejected His love and have done despite 
to His spirit of grace. God has proposed that all sinners 
submit themselves to Jesus, but they have refused to have 
the “Man Christ Jesus” to rule over them. And yet, He alone 
possesses the salvation which they need and it is a source 
of hope for all that He is still merciful. After long years of 
wickedness and rebellion the sinner may still come to our 
Savior and find the salvation he needs. ‘This is the heart 
of the Gospel message—that He still loves us in spite of our 
insults and that He will save us in spite of our sins. 


133. Repentance Required. Another very interesting mat- 
ter is the caution exercised by Joseph to see that his brethren 
had repented and thereby to know that they were changed 
men. ‘This purpose accounts for his strange treatment of 
them on the various visits which they made to Egypt. At 
the time when they sold him to the slave traders, they did 
not care for the feelings of their father. ‘They lied to him 
about the condition of Joseph, and in selling him thus brought 
their father down low in sorrow. Joseph would know wheth- 
er they still had this same disposition. The plea of Judah 
for Benjamin, in which he pleads for his father’s sake, clear- 
ly revealed a different type of man to that manifest when 
last he knew them. This evidence of change was all that 
Joseph desired and he at once revealed himself to them and 
assured them of his love and blessing. In this same way 
Jesus does not accept and save the sinner until He can 
by providence or otherwise bring him to repentance for his 


THE STORIES ABOUT JOSEPH 147 


sins. He must change his whole attitude and outlook on life. 
But when that is done a life of wretched sinfulness can be 
accepted and saved in the provisions of Christ. This re- 
pentance must be so full and revolutionary as to involve 
a complete change of views and feelings and actions. We 
must fully turn from our sins to Christ and righteousness. 


Joseph and His Own Family 


134. Secures His Family. Here, also, let us note that after 
he had finished his suffering and had in the providence of 
God come into his high position of honor and service, he 
was given a wife and grew a family. Rejected of his own 
people, he secured his family from others. In this he again 
illustrates the work of Christ among the Gentile nations. 
When rejected by the Jews, as Joseph was by his breth- 
ren, Jesus turned to the Gentiles and during the period of 
their rejection and sin He will secure unto Himself His 
Gentile bride. This is a suggestion of both joy and sad- 
ness. It is a matter of sorrow that the Jews denied Him 
and thus brought themselves into sorrow and doubt and 
also brought the curse of God upon themselves. On the 
other hand, it has turned out to be the peace and hope and 
joy of all the nations and we are all made nigh unto Him 
as our Savior. This is precisely the argument of Paul in 
Romans (chapters 9-11)—that the rejection of Jesus by 
the Jews and their consequent rejection by Him was a part 
of the plan of God for world blessing and that Gentiles are 
now blessed but that Jews will finally be grafted in again. 


135. His Family Escaped His Humiliation and Shared 
His Glory. Then, too, having suffered and been exalted 
before he secured his family, they were not required to suf- 
fer with him. They did not enter into his sorrow and suf- 
fering, but into his glory. He made his struggle all alone, 
except as God was with him to bless him. As a slave, 
no human hand was with him. He suffered and that un- 
justly, himself being innocent. In the same way he was 


148 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


cast into prison and alone suffered the wrong which his 
master’s wife had brought upon him. In it all he was 
true to both God and man and by the heip of God over- 
came the evil and was exalted to his place of high honor. 
After reaching this exalted station he secured his family. 
The days. of suffering were all over, however, and he was 
in position to give them the blessing of his riches and 
honor. There was no need for them to suffer for he could 
never be brought into that state again and would not send 
them to suffer thus. 


136. The Christian’s Comfort. This is, for the Christian, a 
suggestion of far-reaching significance and filled with much 
of comfort. Jesus alone met and endured all the temp- 
tations of satan and then bore all the outbursts of the wrath 
of God. Aiter bearing all the suffering heaped upon Him 
by the sins of men, Jesus was exalted by the hand of God 
and made to have all authority, both in heaven and in earth. 
Now that He is thus exalted He is securing His spiritual 
family, who enter in with Him into the victory which He 
has obtained. Their destiny has been linked to His, not 
in the matter of His suffering, but in the results of His 
victory. How precious the truth that He should tread the 
winepress of the wrath of God alone! And how glorious 
the truth that we are to share with our Savior in all His 
elorious victory! And since He can never be brought again 
into His former state of humiliation and suffering, but is 
to continue in the uninterrupted enjoyment of His victory, 
those who are joined to Him as believers can not be brought 
back into the power of sin, but will forever enjoy with Him 
the great triumph over sin. If He be King they will enjoy 
with Him the honors of His reign. If He be Priest they 
will be of the priestly family and have all the values to 
accrue from such position of honor. If He has a glorified 
and perfect and eternal life to be lived forever in the pres- 
ence and favour of God, they will have a life eternal and 
a gloriously perfected life. How blessed it is to be thus 
united with the risen and glorified Redeemer! 


THE STORIES ABOUT JOSEPH 149 





Preparation for the Famine 


137. According to Divine Plan. The work of Joseph in 
preparation for the coming famine and the method and prin- 
ciples upon which he used his means for the preservation 
of the people furnish some valuable suggestions. And first 
of all, God revealed to him beforehand the coming of the 
famine und gave him understanding of how to provide 
against its utter ruin. This is like Jesus, who understood 
the purpose of God and knew the danger to which sin was 
about to expose man and also knew from God what was 
necessary to man’s safety against that day. Here, then, 
Joseph becomes an illustration of how Jesus worked: in 
harmony with the will of God and under His instructions 
as He wrought out for us the plan of salvation. This puts 
the whole work of redemption under the supervision of God 
Himself and lets us see how Jesus could say “My meat is 
to do the will of Him that sent me” and “to finish His 
work” (Jno. 4:34). 


138. Preparation Complete Before Needed. Another thing 
that is noticeable is that the preparation was undertaken and 
completed before there was any visible sign of a need for 
it. That is to say, before the famine began Joseph had 
already stored up enough of corn to last through the entire 
famine. The whole preparation and plan was complete. 
We have had this lesson before, that the plan of human 
salvation was complete before man sinned. Some seem to 
imagine that man sinned and that God then, as an after 
thought, set about providing a means by which to recover 
man from his sins and losses. This view is very superficial 
and God-dishonoring and is also very hazardous for fallen 
man. It puts God in the attitude of uncertainty and makes 
Him subject to the whims and changes of men. Moreover, 
if that were so, when man sinned God was, for a while at 
least, without any means of salvation. It would make sa!- 
vation an after thought and rob it of its central place in the 
plans and purposes of deity. In that case salvation would 


150 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


have been a genuine embarrassment to God and not a joy- 
ous undertaking to which He had set His hand. Then our 
redemption would not be a display of love but the relieving 
of a divine embarrassment. 


The Bible takes a very different view of all this. It tells 
us of man’s fall and then tells us how Jesus “stood as a 
lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.” ‘That 
is to say, God had the whole plan made and Christ was. 
already the Savior before the world was made. ‘There was 
a Savior before there was a sinner that needed salvation. 
Then God was never for a minute frustrated or embarrassed 
in His great world plan. Nor was there ever a moment 
of time when man had no way of escape from sin. There 
never was a time when there was no Savior to whom a sin- 
ner could look and be saved. Then, too, this makes the 
work of salvation by Jesus a part of the eternal plan of God. 
Redemption, then, was in the purpose of God in the creation 
of man. This makes the universe far more sacred. It also 
makes our salvation much more certain and glorious. If it 
was God’s very purpose we may be sure that He will finish 
the task He has undertaken. 


139. Preparation Sufficient for All. Let us remember 
further that when the need really came there was enough 
for all and that its administration was all in the hands of 
one. Joseph, alone, of all men, had the needed food to keep 
alive the famishing families of men. But in the good prov- 
idence of God he had a sufficiency for all. There were no 
restrictions put upon the number or character of persons 
that would be supplied. Now this is parallel to the work 
of salvation in Jesus. He is the only one who can save us 
from the ruin of sin. “For there is none other name under 
heaven given among men whereby we may be saved” (Acts 
4:12). Moreover, He has provided amply for all men. He 
made a “propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but 
for the sins of the whole world” (I Jno. 2:2). The provis- 
ions which Jesus made on Calvary in atonement for our 
sins were ample to supply redemption for all men. This 


THE STORIES ABOUT JOSEPH 151 


truth furnishes us the basis for teaching the tidings of His 
Cross to all the people of the earth. For just as none who 
went to Joseph for bread were denied, so none who come 
to Jesus in the proper spirit will be denied salvation. He 
has enough for all and He alone has it. But it is freely 
given to all who seek it from Him. 


How the Provision Was Dispensed 


140. Men First Used All They Had. It is interesting to 
consider how the people became partakers of his provisions. 
First of all, he did not open the storehouses to them until 
they had exhausted all of their own supplies. Having done 
that, they presented themselves before Joseph and made ap- 
plication for his assistance. Putting it otherwise, they came 
to want and then were granted the needed help. Is not 
this the condition upon which the sinner receives salvation 
from Jesus? He must recognize that he is in dire need. 
He must learn that he cannot save, nor even help save, him- 
self. With this sense of helplessness he can come to Jesus 
crying “Lord, save or I perish” (Matt. 14:30), and will at 
once find deliverance. To be fully conscious of our need of 
salvation is our very best qualification for approach to Jesus. 
Here is humility and here is the expression of trust in 
another. 


141. Surrender All They Have to Joseph and the King. 
Another matter of interest in this connection is that Joseph 
made them give him all their money and all their lands. 
Before he would assure their food they must convey to the 
king all of their lands and when the famine was over they 
were all tenants and were required to pay as rent a fifth 
part of what they made. This is not a doctrine of govern- 
mental autocracy, or work salvation or salvation purchased 
by their own means. There is no indication that the value 
of the land would equal the value of the food by which they 
were kept alive. Not only did Joseph demand it, but they 
were so grateful for their lives that after the famine they 


152 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 





willingly paid the rent expected. In many ways this illus- 
trates our relation to Christ and to God in the matter of 
salvation. We do not purchase salvation, but before Jesus 
will give it to us we must surrender ourselves and all we 
have to the Father. Never again can we claim anything we 
have as our own. We are God’s and all we have is simply 
ours in trust as the stewards of God. Moreover, the saved 
sinner, like those to whom Joseph furnished food, is willing 
out of gratitude to serve God always after he has received 
His saving mercy. ‘Two points should be urged. First, that 
the sinner must give up all when he comes to Christ, and 
second, to urge upon Christians to carefully recognize, and 
on all occasions acknowledge, that we and all of our pos- 
sessions belong to God. We should not, then, use our powers 
of body or mind or spirit to promote our general pleas- 
ure or advancement, but for the purposes of divine glory. 


Joseph’s Own Kindred In Egypt 


142. He Wanted Them There. With reference to Jos- 
eph’s own kindred coming down into Egypt and being lo- 
cated in Goshen there are some valuable suggestions. In 
the first place, Joseph wanted them there and spoke of them 
to Pharaoh, who in turn sent for them to come to Egypt. 
They were presented to Pharaoh and because of Joseph were 
given a permanent home in Goshen, the best place in the 
land for them. It is interesting, too, how Joseph presented 
his father and brethren to Pharaoh. There was in him none 
of that smallness seen in some, otherwise great men, who 
shun or are ashamed of their parents who are of less culture 
or other attainments than themselves. He loved them and 
was not ashamed of them before the king. There is hardly 
a finer quality of greatness than that which enables a man 
of culture or high and honorable position to feel at ease 
when he presents his uncultured kindred to his associates or 
to have them live at ease with himself. 


143. Jesus Wants Us With Him. In this same way Je- 
sus loves us and wants us to be with Him. In His last 


THE STORIES ABOUT JOSEPH 153 


prayer for us in the seventeenth chapter of John, He prayed 
the Father saying “I will that they also whom thou hast given 
me be with me” (Jno. 7:24). And when we come to Him 
He will not be ashamed of us before the Heavenly Father. 
He is also making ready for us and we are to have our per- 
manent place with God because Christ provides it. The only 
reason why they were admitted into Egypt and given a place 
there, was because of their relation to Joseph. In like man- 
ner, we are to find a joyous entrance into the eternal King- 
dom because of our relation to Jesus. We are to be saved, 
not because of our work or worth, but because of Christ’s 
worth and work and because of our relation to Him. Our 
salvation is “for Christ’s sake” and through the provisions 
which He has made. Here is our hope which is “an anchor 
of the soul both sure and steadfast and reaches to within the 
veil” (Heb. 6:19). It is the oft repeated story of welcome. 
We will be as welcome in the house of Jesus as the child is 
in the home of its parents. Not because we are good, but 
because we are His kin. 


144. Safe During the Life of Joseph and the Pharaohs Who 
Knew Him. It is most comforting also to recall that they 
were nourished there in perfect peace as long as Joseph lived 
and as long as the kings lived who knew and loved Joseph. 
His life and the life of those kings who knew him guaranteed 
their safety. If we are to parallel this to our relation to Jesus 
we shall find exactly what the Scriptures teach. It would 
mean that as long as Jesus lives we are to be sate in the 
blessings of God. If He retains His present position of ex- 
alted life in the presence of God, we will go on undisturbed 
in our spiritual relation to God. And this is just what Jesus 
says “Because I live ye shall live also” (Jno. 14:19). Then, 
too, as long as God, who “for Christ’s sake” grants us His 
favor, lives, we are secure in our blessing. In other words, 
we are as secure as the life of both Jesus and the Father. 
Our life is hid with Christ in God. What unspeakable com- 
fort is such a basis of assurance! 


154 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


Some More General Suggestions 


145. An Ambitious Youth. Now if we lap back into the 
story—the whole story of his ambitions and his faithfulness 
and usefulness—several other matters will furnish us with 
food for thought. His career will give instruction to all am- 
bitious youths as well as to all who have convictions that are 
disapproved by others. To the youth he illustrates the need 
of early ambitions and of a determined and/consecrated ef- 
fort to accomplish that purpose. Like Joseph, we may be 
sure that difficulty will arise and that we may be under the 
necessity to suffer. Like him, we may enter the pit or be a 
slave (if not literally, then in effect), or suffer imprisonment. 
But we can succeed, if only our plans are in harmony with 
the Divine One, and we will be faithful. If others ridicule our 
purpose like Joseph’s father, or hate us for it as did his breth- 
ren, we must do like Joseph, dream another dream on the 
same matter and tell it also. We must risk God to give suc- 
cess to all of our efforts. We must not fail to keep ourelves 
clean from all evil. Joseph was no complainer. He made the 
best of every situation and never grew discouraged. Such 
an ambition with such a spirit backed by such a faith in God 
will always win. } 


146. A Trustworthy Youth and Man. We do well also to 
learn something of the trustworthiness represented in him. 
His father could fully trust him. This is seen in the fact of 
his reporting to his father the disobedience of his brethren in 
which he proved true to the family government and honor, 
and again, in the fact that his father could send him to see 
about his brethren on the occasion when they sold him into 
slavery. He could also be trusted as a slave and so made 
the best slave in Egypt. Even in that position he served the 
interests of his master and was thereby promoted to be over- 
seer. As overseer he was again found faithful. He would 
not sin when tempted by his master’s wife because it was 
wrong and because it would be to do his master wrong. 
When in prison he was equally reliable and soon had posses- 
sion of the keys of the prison and yet all was safe in his hands. 


THE STORIES ABOUT JOSEPH 155 


He went there by the unfaithfulness of another. He would 
however, do no wrong to get out. When he came to be 
exalted by Pharaoh he proved equally faithful in his posi- 
tion of high honor. The interests of the king never suffered 
in his hands. He never assumed to have any power not 
actually conferred and turned everything possible to the glory 
of the king. 


And what word can we say to emphasize the value and im- 
portance of one’s being trustworthy! It is the very stuff out 
of which all true success comes. It would hardly be pos- 
sible to over-estimate this matter. Many young men fail be- 
cause they cannot be true in a crisis and still more because 
they are unreliable anywhere. All other good qualities fail, 
if we cannot be trusted. But the man or woman who suc- 
ceeds in establishing a reputation for being trustworthy may 
have any sort of help needed from others to insure success. 
And if we pass over into the realm of spiritual service—or 
duty to God in matters concerning His kingdom, we must 
hold constantly in mind that God commits an ever-enlarging 
work to those who are faithful. No mental or other attain- 
ment will suffice, if this element is lacking. 


147. Worthy Princples of Life. When tempted by his 
master’s wife, he gave expression to some principles that 
governed his actions and are suited for our adoption. He 
said “Neither hath he (his master) kept back anything from 
me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do 
this great wickedness, and sin against God?’ (Ch. 39:8). 
In this he indicated: (1) That he was unwilling to do any- 
thing wrong in itself. (2) That he would not willingly sin 
against God. (3) That he would not transgress the rights 
of others. Here are three important matters. The first has 
to do with himself. He would keep himself right—a clear 
conscience. The second has to do with God. He knew of God’s 
disfavor on sin and would not knowingly bring upon him- 
self that disfavor. The third had to do with others. He 
would not treat others wrong and thus win their disfavor. 
This points out the very highest principles of action. Keep 


156 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


right with one’s own self, keep right with God and men. It 
meets our obligations, personal, social, and divine or religious, 
and makes us complete in every good thing. 


148. How Sinners Come to Jesus and are Comforted and 
Saved. Turning again to the story of Joseph’s revealing him- 
self to his brethren, there is an interesting parallel to the way 
sinful men come to Christ. He deals with us through provi- 
dence and otherwise until we see our sins. When their souls 
passed through great and sorrowful trials they talked about 
their sin against Joseph in selling him. ‘They confessed their 
guilt and expressed the belief that their sorrow was a pun- 
ishment for that sin (Gen. 42:21-23). And later they said 
again that God had found out their iniquity (Gen. 44: 16). 
In all this they are becoming penitent for the sin which had 
so long been hidden in their hearts. When penitence had 
done its full work and they stood before Joseph and plead 
for the sake of their father, he revealed himself to them. In 
doing so he comforted them concerning their sin which was 
at that very time troubling them. He told them how they 
should not grieve over their selling him there, since God was 
to use it in preserving them alive. He comforted them in 
the fact that, while they meant it for evil, God meant it for 
good—‘“to save much people alive” (50:20). This is a doc- 
trine of divine grace setting their convicted consciences at 
rest. They had already sufficiently condemned themselves. 
They now needed their broken hearts healed. 


What a beautiful picture is this of the way in which a 
sinner is received when he comes to Jesus! One never comes 
until he has first become painfully conscious of sin and then 
he comes fearful and broken and submissive. He fully con- 
demns himself for having sinned against God and is con- 
scious that he is worthy of punishment. But Jesus receives 
him, not to condemn but to bless and save. He knows how 
we have been in the wrong and how regretful we are for 
it all and, therefore, on the basis of grace, He reveals to us 
love and forgiveness and makes us fully accepted. This is 
just the way we are saved. First the sinner takes his proper 


THE STORIES ABOUT JOSEPH 157 


place before God as a sinner worthy of judgment and then 
Jesus takes His place as Savior and our redemption is made 
secure. It is also a part of the plan of mercy that God should 
bring any and all sorts of providences to bear upon us so 
that we may be brought to see our sins and turn to Jesus 
for life. 


149. Resume. ‘l'aken as a whole, then, this story sets be- 
fore us one of the richest illustrations or types of the Son 
of God. Here we have His humiliation and rejection, their 
repentance and restoration, the union of the church and 
Christ and His glorious exaltation to a place of universal 
power. The whole story makes everything tend to the one 
purpose of exalting Joseph as the one chosen of God. The 
hatred of his brethren, the Ishmaelite slave traders, the wick- 
edness of Potiphar’s wife, the dreams of some prisoners and 
of the king—yea God controlled the seasons and brought on 
a famine—all to exalt the one whom men had rejected and 
to make manifest their guilt. In like manner, Jehovah con- 
trolled the currents of ail history and still controls them— 
whether men or angels or devils so that in His sovereign 
hand they mey.carry out His purpose to put all things 
under Jesus to whom all things must finally bow. And then 
shall He turn back the reins of government into the hand 
of God who shall then “be all and in all.” 


CHAPTER, XI. 


Seven Principal Men of Genesis 


150. A Study of Sevens. In a brief concluding chapter 
let us now consider the seven principal men, in whom also we 
find the very heart of the book of Genesis. And first of all, 
the number seven is itself interesting. It is everywhere in 
the book and in all nature as well. It is made up of three, 
the divine number, and four, the human number, and signifies 
completion of fullness. There were seven days at the time of 
the restoration of the earth, six for work and one for rest, 
which never ended ‘or turned again back into creation. Here 
are seven outstanding men. 


If we look about us in nature we shall find the same mani- 
festations. In the case of birds most of their eggs require 
a definite number of weeks to hatch, two weeks, three weeks, 
four weeks, etc. In some cases they lay a definite number of 
weeks and then set a similar number of weeks. Most of the 
animals carry their young a definite number of weeks before 
birth. All of us are also familiar with the cycles of certain 
diseases such as typhoid or pneumonia or fever. In such dis- 
eases we understand that the time of crisis will be on the sev- 
enth or fourteenth or twenty-first day. Or it will come the 
next day after the week-end which is the beginning of the new 
week. There are seven prismaic colors in light and even the 
leaves of the forests bear testimony to this seven-fold form of 
nature. The same God who thus in nature manifests His per- 
fections and beauties by means of sevens is the God who has 
made seven men here, as the chief persons of this book, reveal 
the great principles of His religion. 


151. Other Types. There are, as has already been indicated 
in the previous chapters, many other persons and things that 
are typical or illustrative of great spiritual truth. These rep- 
resent both the true and the false in worship and life. Such 


SEVEN PRINCIPAL MEN OF GENESIS 159 


persons are Eve, Cain, Lot, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, Rebekah, 
Keturah, Esau, Asenath and Pharaoh as well as Melchizedek. 
Such also were the light, the sun, the moon, the coat of leaves 
and of skins, the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, the Ark, the 
rain-bow, the flood, the smoking furnace and vultures seen 
by Abraham and the ram offered instead of Isaac. There are 
many others that in a small way have bearing upon these 
matters. 


152. The Seven as General Types. But after all this has 
been said, it still remains true that seven men—Adam, Abel, 
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph—furnish us with the 
very essence of the truth revealed in the book. The biogra- 
phies of these seven men give us a perfect picture of the divine 
life in the soul from the earliest beginnings of it to its full 
maturity. . They show us God as the great Life-giver-Creator 
and make life the keynote upon which all the rest is dependent. 
Following them in a general way, their typical or general 
value may be put down as follows: 


(1) Adam. Adam was the first of all creatures to possess 
spiritual life. He was made in the image of God and capable of 
fellowship with Him. Through him we are taught some fun- 
damental lessons concerning the beginning of spiritual life. He 
shows us that God alone can give us the divine life and that we 
begin to live that life when, through the entrance of God’s word, 
light comes into our darkened hearts and God comes to us with 
His provisions of grace and salvation. These revelations of the 
fact of our spiritual nature and of the possibility and value of 
fellowship with God lie at the very foundation of all spiritual 
knowledge. Without these truths there would be no place for 
regeneration and no ground upon which to build a glorious divine 
life (chapters 2-3). 


(2) Abel. Abel, together with Cain and their conflict, gives 
us an impressive foreshadowing of the two different seeds or kinds 
of life we find upon the earth—the divine and the satanic. The 
story lets us see that human life may be dominated either by God 
or by satan. It is a miniature picture of the two forces that we 


160 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


constantly see at work in the world. These same two influences 
are also active in the personal life of every individual in whom the 
Spirit of God has performed the work of regenerating grace. The 
relation of the two men suggests how the flesh lusteth against the 
Spirit because the one is contrary to the other. And certainly we 
learn that, although the spiritual life may be one of conflict and 
suffering, it is more glorious even in death than the other is in 
life (chapters 4-5). 

(3) Noah. Noah passed through the flood by which the old 
world was judged and came out into a new scene and was accepted 
of God through the sweet-savour of his sacrifice. He shows us 
the blessed state of those who have passed from death into life. 
His experience is a good illustration of where salvation puts us 
when we become new creatures in Christ Jesus. In him we 
see how “old things pass away and all things become new.” If 
Adam shows us how the spiritual life is begun and if Abel shows 
us the difficulty of living such a life, Noah shows how safe 
that life is in times of divine judgment (6:1-11:9). 

(4) Abraham. Abraham shows us how we may live accept- 
able to God. By his life in Canaan he has gven us to see the 
nature of the life of a true worshiper who is also a pilgrim and 
stranger. He lived for another country than the one in which he 
dwelt and thereby illustrated how we are not to set our affections 
upon things below, but on things above where Christ is. He 
made known to us the consequences and fruit of a walk of faith 
in God whom we have received into our hearts and who is in all 
things pertaining to faith our pattern (11:10-21 end). 


(5) Jsaac. In Isaac we also have a type of the children of 
God. His life brings us a message of self-surrender into the 
hands of God the Father—a self-surrender that becomes the door- 
way into a life of peace and enjoyment such as surely comes to 
the surrendered soul. He shows that it pays to surrender even 
to the point of suffering or the sacrifice of life and that the great- 
est blessing comes to those who are so surrendered that God is 
looked to for all the plans and policies of life (22:1-26:33). 

(6) Jacob. By all of his varied experiences, Jacob suggests 
to us the processes of spiritual discipline. By these experiences 


SEVEN PRINCIPAL MEN OF GENESIS 161 


he was changed from Jacob to Israel and shows us how God can 
by discipline change a crooked and deceitful trickster into a 
prince of God. He reveals the method of God by which love 
chastens us and deals with the old nature in us after we be- 


come God’s children (26 :34-37:1). 


(7) Joseph. The fullest of all the Genesis types of Jesus was 
Joseph. He shows us one who suffers for righteousness and not 
because of his sins. By going through this suffering he attained 
to a supremacy over all the world, and also became its greatest 
blessing. He was the object of the highest blessing of God who 
was all along his source of strength. He encourages us to live 
the noblest possible lives and shows how life can be of the highest 
good, even if it must endure much suffering and wrong. 


152. Two Groups—Three and Four. If now we approach 
them from another point of view and if for the time being we 
omit from our discussions the double nature of the types, we shall 
find some interesting and helpful applications. And first of all, 
it is to be observed that the seven easily fall into two groups. ‘The 
first contains three, which is the divine number and has special 
significance in relation to Jesus and His saving work. The second 
group of four, which corresponds to the human number or world 
number, are especially valuable as typical of us as the sons of 
God and of the relations and blessings and obligations which are 
ours. 


(1) First Group—Three. In the first three we have Adam 
who represented Jesus as federal head. He projects a race in 
nature like himself as Jesus is the Head of a new creation—spirit- 
ual descendants who possess His nature. Then, there follows 
Abel, who in his death and resurrection as exemplified in Seth, 
who had_his spirit and promulgated it, shows forth the work ot 
Jesus by which, through death and resurrection, He wrought out 
our redemption and overthrew satan. He in turn is followed by 
Noah who saves those of his household from the overflowing 
scourge of God’s wrath. In this he shows how Jesus will at the 
time of judgment deliver all of those who have trusted Him for 
life. ‘Together the three made a complete picture of the work 


162 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


of Jesus in saving us. He is our spiritual Head, the One who 
wrought out for us our salvation and the One with whom we 
are to pass through death and be delivered from judgment and 
wrath. 


(2) Second Group—Four. In the second group, as has been 
indicated, we are given lessons more especially applicable to 
us as the children of God. Abraham is a representative of faith. 
He shows us the value of faith as a life principle and lets us 
see what honor God puts upon it. This is especially seen as he 
is contrasted with men of no faith. One cannot fail in any 
study of Abraham to be deeply impressed with the way God’s 
favour attends a man who fully and obediently trusts Him. 

Isaac is the representative of sonship and impresses us with 
all the noble qualities of worthy sons, as well as with all the joys 
and blessings attendant therewith. We are impressed with his 
noble obedience and submission to his father, with the position 
of honor which he held as the heir of his father’s wealth and 
with the loving interests which his father manifested in his happi- 
ness. In all this we are impressed with a sense of the advantage 
which is ours because of our relation to God as His children. 
We are able to better understand the value of submission to the 
will of God and learn the beauty of loving obedience to Him. 
We learn also something of God’s love for us as His children and 
how He is interested to see us happy and to finally have us with 
Him. We are seen to be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. 


Jacob is a representative of discipline and service. Although 
the chosen vessel of God, he had much to learn. His was a life 
of activity. It was necessary for him to travel around and endure 
hardships—even privations. He toiled much and was a long time 
learning the deeper spiritual lessons. As a disciple he had much 
to learn of himself and also of God. His was a life of struggle 
and disappointment. In all of this he exemplified the life of a 
Christian who must deny himself and bear his cross. 


Joseph is a representative of rule or enthronement. In him 
are seen the path of humiliation by which he came to his exal- 
tation and the blessedness of his rule. We see in him one who 


SEVEN PRINCIPAL MEN OF GENESIS 163 


rules for the good of others. Moreover, we see how it is the hand 
of God that exalts him. It all shows that the Christian is finally 
to be exalted and to reign with Christ on His throne and sug- 
gests that “if so be that we suffer with Him (Jesus) we shall also 
be glorified together” (Rom 8:17). 


153. The Order of These Four. The order in these is also 
instructive. First, there is faith (Abraham), second, sonship 
(Isaac), third, discipleship and service (Jacob) and fourth, rule 
(Joseph). This is the true Christian order. One must first ex- 
ercise faith which issues in sonship. This suggests that we are 
the children of God by faith. It is in harmony with the state- 
ment “He came to His own and His own received Him not, but 
to as many as received Him to them gave He power to 
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name’”’ 
(Jno. 1:11-12). Here Isaac issues from Abraham just as be- 
coming sons of God results from the exercise of faith. Sonship 
leads us directly into a life of discipline and service. ‘The new- 
born child must be trained. It must know the mind of the Father 
and do His will. It is the work of training. For the Christian 
this began as soon as we were born again as the children of God. 
Such exercise, in due time, will bring one to the power of Christ. 
We will gain power over self and with God and other men. What 
an order this and how true—faith, sonship, service and reigning 
power! It is the path from earth and sin to salvation and 
Heaven. 

154. Order in the Use of All Biblical Types. These studies 
suggest that the types of the Bible are not thrown in haphazard, 
but are collected together and arranged in an orderly and pur- 
poseful relation, which marks the work as divine. First, there 
are three that are especially representative of the divine work of 
redemption, followed by four that symbolize the steps by which 
this redemption is received and the way it manifests itself. Taken 
as a whole, the key thought of the early books is likewise orderly 
in arrangement. Genesis speaks of life and especially leaves 
Israel in Egypt as a type of man in sin. Exodus brings them 
out of this bondage and thereby illustrates redemption. Leviti- 
cus provides the altars and sacrifices as a means of sanctification 


164 GENESIS—A STUDY OF THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION 


which follows our redemption or deliverance from sin. Num- 
bers indicates a walk or service and shows how the redeemed are 
to walk through this world. If we went further into it, we would 
find that the individual leaders in each book has a most intimate 
and significant relation to the great central thought of that book. 


Once more, we do well to note how much of the shepherd charac- 
ter is found in these men. In this they are typical of the Lord, 
‘ who is the Good Shepherd. Some indeed, as Abel, were shepherds 
having their flocks and herds. Others had such flocks and also 
performed the act of shepherding other men less wise or less for- 
tunate than themselves. All of them were of the shepherd class. 
This is highly figurative of Jesus who leads and feeds and pro- 
tects His spiritual,sheep. 

In closing we can but hope that the reader has been introduced 
to the book of Genesis in a new way and that the fine unity of 
purpose which pervades the entire book has been discovered. It 
is also hoped that the impression has been gained that the entire 
Word of God has been found to concentrate its teachings upon 
the one theme of redemption in Christ Jesus. It is hoped that 
comfort has been gained from the suggestions of the nature of 
that redemption. A prayer follows every reader that not one 
shall fail of the blessings which that redemption has for us in this 
life and of the eternal blessedness which it guarantees to us in 
the future life. 





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